With the crime novels, its delightful to have protagonists I can revisit in book after book. Its like having a fictitious family.

In my books you have to concentrate, but I work hard to make it that, when you do, the rewards are quite high.

I'm a hopeless 19th-century romantic.

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

The world is not real for me until it has been pushed through the mesh of language.

Writing keeps me at my desk, constantly trying to write a perfect sentence. It is a great privilege to make one's living from writing sentences. The sentence is the greatest invention of civilization. To sit all day long assembling these extraordinary strings of words is a marvelous thing. I couldn't ask for anything better. It's as near to godliness as I can get.

The first thought that occurred to me, that night when I heard the chairman of the jury announce my name, was, Just think how many people hate me at this moment. Naturally, I wanted to annoy those people even further by being arrogant.