God takes out your heart of flesh, and gives you a heart of stone.

I think the monarchy today is. . . mildly interesting and largely harmless. I can't find I can get very heated about it. In the next couple of generations, it is bound to go.

I used to think that when I set out that doing the research was enough! But then the gaps would emerge that could only be filled by the imagination. And imagination only comes when you privilege the subconscious, when you make delay and procrastination work for you.

It was a very funny conference. I knew [Christopher Hitchens] before that. He had always been a good angel to me. He once stole a phrase from me that came out of his mouth on television. I saw his eyes move sideways. I thought, It's alright, you can have it! The conference was light on women. Salman Rushdie showed up, they were doing their own thing. I didn't feel neglected!

As a writer, you owe it to yourself not to get stuck in a rut of looking at the world in a certain way.

Insights don't usually arrive at my desk, but go into notebooks when I'm on the move. Or half-asleep.

I loved Gore Vidal's Burr. That book gave me courage.