Asking a writer what he thinks about criticism is like asking a lamppost what it feels about dogs.

The schoolteacher is certainly underpaid as a childminder, but ludicrously overpaid as an educator.

Don't clap too hard - it's a very old building.

The whole point of a sacrifice is that you give up something you never really wanted in the first place. People are doing it around you all the time. They give up their careers, say -- or their beliefs -- or sex.

Writers don't need love; all they require is money.

And even in the hatred of the majority, there's a kind of triumph because I know that, although they'd never admit it, they secretly respect me.

Heroes, whatever high ideas we may have of them, are mortal and not divine. We are all as God made us and many of us much worse.