It was only as I wrote about fear that I began to find paths of access to feelings that were intolerable to me then.

But the day I can't shrug off a twinge of self-pity, is the day I'm washed up for keeps.

Poetry is supposed to be musical. But people don't understand prose. They're so used to reading journalism - clunky, functional sentences that convey factual information - facts, more than just the surfaces of things.

As I get older I find that the friendships that are the most certain, ultimately, are the ones where you and the other person have made substantial amounts of money for one another.

I try to write every day. I don't beat myself up about word counts, or how many hours are ticking by on the clock before I'm allowed to go and do something else. I just try to keep a hand in and work every single day, even if there are other demands or I'm on a book tour or have the flu or something, because then I keep my unconscious engaged with the book. Then I'm always a little bit writing, no matter what else I'm doing.

Nature, or at least birds and women, abhorred the invisible man.

As much as I care about historical context - I'm very eager to read a really great historical account.