Ian McEwan is a very good writer; the first half of Atonement alone would ensure him a lasting place in English letters.

When I finish a sentence, after much labor, it's finished. A certain point comes at which you can't do any more work on it because you know it will kill the sentence.

Perhaps all of life is no more than a long preparation for the leaving of it.

A plot begins when somebody has something to hide.

That's one of the many things I hate about life, that it's a hideously cliched business.

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.

For memory, we use our imagination. We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them.