I can't even say I made my own mistakes. Really - one has to ask oneself - what dignity is there in that?

Even at the time, I realised this couldn't be right, that this interpretation didn't fit with the rest of the lyrics. But that wasn't an issue with me. The song was about what I said, and I used to listen to it again and again, on my own, whenever I got the chance.

Our family arrived in England in 1960. At that time I thought the war was ancient history. But if I think of 15 years ago from now, thats 1990, and that seems like yesterday to me.

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.

I'm interested in memory because it's a filter through which we see our lives, and because it's foggy and obscure, the opportunities for self-deception are there. In the end, as a writer, I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.

People were incredibly kind to our family and went out of their way to help.

An artist's concern is to capture beauty wherever he finds it.