I am often criticised for being rather accessible.

Oddly my name has been no professional help at all! It seems to have made no difference. I admire him hugely, both for his benevolence and his enormous psychological perception.

You can't help parts of yourself leaking into other characters.

You can change yourself and you can change the situation but you absolutely cannot change other people. Only they can do that.

Out of respect to writers, you have to read the book in the way in which the author visualised it going out into the world.

My view of an excellent novel was probably set in the golden age of fiction in the 19th century: narrative, character and voice are of equal importance.

I'm no lyrical stylist, you wouldn't pick me for a perfect sentence, and I certainly wouldn't describe my novels as intellectual.