An English journalist called Michael Viney told me when I was 25, that I would write well if I cared a lot what I was writing about. That worked. I went home that day and wrote about parents not understanding their children as well as we teachers did, and it was published the very next week.

The whole art of life is knowing the right time to say things.

I thought it must be desperate to be old. To wake up in the morning and remember that you were ancient - and so behave that way. I thought old people were full of aches and pains and horrible illnesses.

You can't lay down laws for what people think and hope.

I've seen a lot of people buy my books and then fall asleep on the plane soon afterwards.

My memory of my home was that it was very happy, and that there was more fun and life there than there was anywhere else.

I'm pleased to have outsold great writers. But I'm not insane - I realize I am a writer people buy to take on vacation.