London in the '70s was a pretty catastrophic dump, I can tell you. We had every kind of industrial trouble; we had severe energy problems; we were under constant terrorist attack from Irish terrorist groups who had started a bombing campaign in English cities; politics were fantastically polarized between left and right.

And feeling clever, I've always thought, is just a sigh away from being cheerful.

The world should take note: not everything is getting worse.

Novels without female characters were a lifeless desert.

Something has happened, hasn't it? ... It's like being up close to something so large you don't even see it. Even now, I'm not sure I can. But I know it's there.

The moment you lose curiosity in the world, you might as well be dead.

There are ways in which art can have a longer reach than politics.