I want my words to survive translation. I know when I write a book now I will have to go and spend three days being intensely interrogated by journalists in Denmark or wherever. That fact, I believe, informs the way I write - with those Danish journalists leaning over my shoulder.

I work very regular hours, roughly 9 to 5:30. I think I have it much easier than a lot of parents. I just sit at home, I have a very flexible timetable, and I'm very fortunate in that I don't have money problems. I have lunch with my wife at home. I don't have to commute, so I have much more time with my family.

Now when I look back to the Guildford of that time it seems far more exotic to me than Nagasaki.

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

I cannot start a story or chapter without knowing how it ends. ... Of course, it rarely ends that way.

There was surely nothing to indicate at the time that such evidently small incidents would render whole dreams forever irredeemable.

It didn't hurt, did it? When I hit you?" "Sure. Fractured skull. Concussion, the lot..." "But seriously, Kath. No hard feelings, right? I'm awfully sorry. I honestly am.