Public libraries have been a mainstay of my life. They represent an individual's right to acquire knowledge; they are the sinews that bind civilized societies the world over. Without libraries, I would be a pauper, intellectually and spiritually.

The rules seem to be these: If you have written a successful novel, everyone invites you to write short stories. If you have written some good short stories, everyone wants you to write a novel. But nobody wants anything until you have already proved yourself by being published somewhere else.

I have never thought of myself as a good writer. Anyone who wants reassurance of that should read one of my first drafts. But I'm one of the world's great rewriters.

There are no insoluble problems. Only time-consuming ones.

On 24 October 1944 Planet Earth was following its orbit about the sun as it has obediently done for nearly five billion years.

The arrogance of the artist is a very profound thing, and it fortifies you.

I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.