I think what is great is that if anything that I do is interesting to somebody else, then I really don't think it matters at all what I had originally intended.

What I've tended to do is to use my own experiences to get into someone else's mind, like in Wuthering Heights.

If ever there's been somebody to hold as an icon of sheer determination and willpower, it's that guy [Stephen Hawking ], let alone any of the things he's done scientifically. I'm sure that's his driving force, but he's a miracle and an aspiration.

I think in some parts of our English history we've had huge amounts of almost too much great comedy. You kind of wonder how so much great work could come out of one country.

I just could not stand the idea of eating meat - I really do think that it has made me calmer.... People's general awareness is getting much better, even down to buying a pint of milk: the fact that the calves are actually killed so that the milk doesn't go to them but to us cannot really be right, and if you have seen a cow in a state of extreme distress because it cannot understand why its calf isn't by, it can make you think a lot.

Whatever is going on in your life when you're writing has to somehow seep into your work.

I saw Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, which I thought was a masterpiece. Not that long ago, I listened to Blackstar by David Bowie and thought that was a masterpiece. Those are two incredibly talented people who've left their mark with us.