The essence of charity ... was not deciding what others needed and giving it to them, but giving them what they wanted.

Charles Dickens was an avid seeker of names - he read directories and looked for odd names on gravestones.

Another thing he told his customers was that one of the great accounting unknowns of the modern age was how to value knowledge. It was an exciting field.

I have reared, or helped to rear, five children and the scariest bit, bar none, is the learning to drive part. It has filled me with anxiety not only about the children, but also about my former self and my friends.

A theory of creativity is actually just a metaphor. A pool of ideas, a well of memories, a voice.

Whatever you love is beautiful; love comes first, beauty follows. The greater your capacity for love, the more beauty you find in the world.

If to live is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to wisdom, then to write novels is to broadcast the various stages of your foolishness.