Some people don't realize that a straight 'No' can be the kindest answer in the world.

I'm one of those unlucky people who had a happy childhood.

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.

Objectivity is just male subjectivity.

Revisionist historians are about to get their hands on the Thatcher years, shes probably going to be looked at again because she feels far enough away now, and we dont see her much on the political landscape in this country, shes kind of disappeared and she doesnt speak out much anymore.

The more melancholy side of my literary personality is much in tune with BS Johnson's.

As the books grew bigger and more ambitious, the situations in question sometimes became political ones, and so it became necessary to start painting in the social background on a scale which eventually became panoramic.