I think it's quite difficult to understand what kind of life a writer leads. They might be millionaires, or they might be starving people.

There comes a point when you can more or less count the number of books you're going to write before you die.

As I say, I have never in all these years thought of the matter in quite this way; but then it is perhaps in the nature of coming away on a trip such as this that one is prompted towards such surprising new perspectives on topics one imagined one had long ago thought throughly.

But I really wanted to find it for you. And when it looked in the end like it wasn't going to turn up, I just said to myself, one day I'll go to Norfolk and I'll find it there for her.' 'The lost corner of England,' I said.

You're always in a rush, or else you're too exhausted to have a proper conversation. Soon enough, the long hours, the traveling, the broken sleep have all crept into your being and become part of you, so everyone can see it, in your posture, your gaze, the way you move and talk.

I think jogging is bad for your health. All that pressure on the knees and back cannot be good for you.

There is certainly a satisfaction and dignity to be gained in coming to terms with the mistakes one has made in the course of one’s life