A man is not much if he can't depend on himself, and nothing if others can't depend on him.

Art is amoral, whether we accept this or not; it does not take sides. The finest fictions are cold at heart.

How flat all sounds are at the seaside, flat and yet emphatic, like the sound of gunshots heard at a distance.

I never went to university. I'm self-educated. I didn't go because I was too impatient, too arrogant.

All my life I have lied. I lied to escape, I lied to be loved, I lied for placement and power; I lied to lie. It was a way of living; lies are life's almost-anagram.

The novel is resilient, and so are novelists.

Life is tragic but it's equally comic.