I write something that I believe I've made up, and it's only when a friend later points it out to me that I realise I've been writing about myself again.

They say that every writer, they write about himself, and I think that to a certain extent that is true. But also we are creators of fiction.

What is worse? Taking the life of a person who wants to live or taking death from a person who wants to die.

When I finish a book, I'm so exhausted that I'm sort of letting myself think that this could be the end.

Christian ethics demand that you should not take revenge. The paradox is, naturally, that Christians worship a God who is the greatest avenger of them all. Defy him and you burn in eternal hell, an act of revenge which is completely out of proportion to the crime

In most sports, your brain and your body will cooperate... But in rock climbing, it is the other way around. Your brain doesn't see the point in climbing upwards. Your brain will tell you to keep as low as possible, to cling to the wall and not get any higher. You have to have your brain persuading your body to do the right movements.

...he went into the sitting room, put on a Duke Ellington record he had bought after seeing Gene Hackman sitting on the overnight bus in The Conversation to the sound of some fragile piano notes that were the loneliest Harry had ever heard.