When we go on about the big things, the political situation, global warming, world poverty, it all looks really terrible, with nothing getting better, nothing to look forward to. But when I think small, closer in - you know, a girl I've just met, or this song we're going to do with Chas, or snowboarding next month, then it looks great. So this is going to be my motto - think small.

The trouble with being a daydreamer who doesn’t say much is that the teachers at school, especially those who don’t know you very well, are likely to think you’re rather stupid. Or, if not stupid, then dull. No one can see the amazing things that are going on in your head.

By measuring individual human worth, the novelist reveals the full enormity of the State

Nothing was to be lost by beginning at the beginning.

I believe the novella is the perfect form of prose fiction.

We go on our hands and knees and crawl our way towards the truth

At the back of my mind I had a sense of us sitting about waiting for some terrible event, and then I would remember that it had already happened.