I want my words to survive translation.

I don't think it's any fun, even if you are one of the most respected authors in the world like Margaret Atwood, to keep being nominated and not win.

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.

Now naturally, like many of us, I have a reluctance to change too much of the old ways.

I realised, of course, that other people used these roads; but that night, it seemed to me these dark byways of the country existed just for the likes of us, while the big glittering motorways with their huge signs and super cafes were for everyone else.

And if these incidents now seem full of significance and all of a piece, it's probably because I'm looking at them in the light of what came later.

The world is crawling with authors touring now. They're like performance artists.