Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.

Most of my work consisted of crossing out. Crossing out was the secret of all good writing.

Humour and high seriousness... Perfect bedfellows, I think. Though I usually phrase it in terms of comedy and darkness. Comedy without darkness rapidly becomes trivial. And darkness without comedy rapidly becomes unbearable.

Appalling things can happen to children. And even a happy childhood is filled with sadnesses.

I like having my back pressed against a wall and being made to work harder so I don't embarrass myself.

Madness doesn't happen to someone alone. Very few people have experiences that are theirs alone.

There's something rather wonderful about the fact that Oxford is a very small city that contains most of the cultural and metropolitan facilities you could want, in terms of bookshops, theatre, cinema, conversation. But it's near enough to London to get here in an hour, and it's near enough to huge open spaces without which I would go insane.