There is nothing "ordinary" about reality.

Writing allows for fictitious voices - the voices of persons unlike myself - that might otherwise be muted.

Why should I want what's good for me?' Beatrice asked him, smiling. 'Is that what you want for yourself - only what's good for you?

When I'm really involved or getting towards the end of a novel, I can write for up to ten hours a day. At those times, it's as though I'm writing a letter to someone I'm desperately in love with.

I write in longhand and assemble lots of notes, and then I try to collate them into a coherent chronology. It's like groping along in the dark. I like writing and find it challenging, but I don't find it easy.

Tragedy is the highest form of art.

The novel is the affliction for which only the novel is the cure.