It was like being given a maths problem when your brain's exhausted, and you know there's some far-off solution, but you can't work up the energy even to give it a go. Something in me just gave up.

Throughout my career I've struggled to encourage people to read my books on a more metaphorical level. I'm less attached to my settings than, for example, Saul Bellow. The setting of a novel for me is just a part of the technique. I choose it at the end.

Every country should have a strong literary tradition of its own at the center, but it should also have an interest in other countries.

I've always had a great fondness for English detective fiction such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers.

We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.

There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.

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