I have noticed before that there is a category of acquaintanceship that is not friendship or business or romance, but speculation, fascination.

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

I love to write about sex. You just have to make it idiosyncratic. You have to have a strong comprehension of your characters, and write it from their point of view. It's really fun. It's not erotic.

you know that the urge for revenge is a fact of marital life.

Because your goal is a complete rough draft of a novel, and every rough draft, by being complete, is perfect.

Somehow, knowing that Alzheimer's is coming mocks all one's aspirations - to tell stories, to think through certain issues as only a novel can do, to be recognised for one's accomplishments and hard work - in a way that old familiar death does not.

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.