To possess another language, Charlemagne tells us, is to possess another soul. German is such a language. Once you have it in your head, you can go there anytime, you can close the door, you have a refuge.

My definition of a decent society is one that first of all takes care of its losers, and protects its weak.

Everyone who is not happy must be shot.

Why did I desert Labour? Total bloody disillusionment. The party was a corpse. It had no ideology, it became detached, old, spineless and needed to go.

For better or worse, I've been involved in the description of political conflict.

It's death, that's what I'm suffering from. The systematic encroachment of the big D.

I've always had difficulties with female characters.