I'm a complete democrat in terms of who buys my books.

What is taken away is greater than the sum of what was there. This may not be mathematically possible; but it is emotionally possible.

(on grief) And you do come out of it, that’s true. After a year, after five. But you don’t come out of it like a train coming out of a tunnel, bursting through the downs into sunshine and that swift, rattling descent to the Channel; you come out of it as a gull comes out of an oil-slick. You are tarred and feathered for life.

But then you begin to understand that the reward of merit is not life’s business.

One of the troubles is this: the heart isn't heart-shaped.

But that’s one advantage of fiction, you can speed up time.

The land of embarrassment and breakfast.