was it possible that i was, in the modern term, in denial?

It's good to get your hands dirty a bit and to test how you see things at a given point. And it's very pleasing after writing something like 'Atonement' or 'On Chesil Beach,' which are historical, to get involved in some plausible re-enactment of the here and now.

I like to think that it isn't weakness or evasion, but a final act of kindness, a stand against oblivion and despair.

Daylight seemed then to be the physical manifestation of common sense.

Narrative tension is primarily about withholding information.

When people have supernatural beliefs I think they should be respected but there is no reason why they need to impose them on others.

I think the Americans are dying to leave Iraq. I was against the war but longed for the fall of Saddam; the decision to go to war clearly was taken long before the matter reached the U.N., given its inevitability. I kept my fingers crossed for the emergence of democracy in Iraq even if that would mean victory for a man whose politics I have little sympathy with.