It seems to me that you would have to write a novel on a very small, intimate scale for it not to become political.

My only regret is that I signed away the world rights and in America they've been far and away my most successful books, but I never saw a cent from any of it.

I have two ideas for novels at the moment, neither of them all that conventional, but I'm not ready to choose between them yet, let alone settle down to the process of writing.

The writer I feel the most affinity with - you said you felt my books are 19th century novels, I think they're 18th century novels - is Fielding, Henry Fielding, he's the guy who does it for me.

You would go mad if you began to speculate about the impact your novel might have while you were still writing it.

Ah, well, I have no talent for nonfiction, that's my problem.

But at the same time, I have trouble keeping things out of books, which is why I don't write short stories because they turn into novels.