I still feel threatened by academics, but my books have a lot of academic in-jokes and everybody assumes I went to university and studied English.

I also read about Heathcliff's unexpected three-year career in Hollywood under the name Buck Stallion and his eventual return to the pages of Wuthering Heights.

Maybe those sorts of yes-or-no life-and-death decisions are easier to make because they are so black and white. I can cope with them because it's easier. Human emotions, well. . .they're just a fathomless collection of grays and I don't do so well on the midtones.

The cleanest souls are the easiest to soil.

For a taste that's a bit more distinct, eat a bird before it's extinct.

Cash is always the deciding factor in such matters of moral politics; nothing ever gets done unless motivated by commerce or greed.

I've got six months to sort out the hackers, get the Japanese knotweed under control and find an acceptable form of narcissus.