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

I was mainly in a state of nervousness while I wrote it - nervousness that it was far bigger and more complicated than anything Id attempted before, and that maybe my talent just wasnt up to it and the book would have to be abandoned, or would turn out not to work at all when it was finished.

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.

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

But you can try to read books at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons.

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.

Contemporary Britain seems an endlessly fascinating place to me - but if I knew a little bit more about other places, and other times, maybe it wouldn't.