I write as if I've lived a lot of things I haven't lived.

Don't eat anything you aren't prepared to kill. Don't kill anything you aren't prepared to eat.

Forgiving men is so much easier than forgiving women.

I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when I didn't write. I started again at 16. And have no idea why, but it was suddenly the only thing I wanted to do.

The newspaper journalists like to believe the worst; they can sell more papers that way, as one of them told me himself; for even upstanding and respectable people dearly love to read ill of others.

Once upon a time, novelists of the 19th century, such as Charles Dickens, published in serial form.

Always good to take a look at the long list for the Mann Booker, for the Commonwealth. It gives you an overview.There is so much going on all over the world that it's impossible for one person to keep up. And I can't.