Fiction that responds to recent world events is a hostage to fortune because all momentous events look very different a year, two years, three years later.

At twenty life was like wrestling an octopus. Every moment mattered. At thirty it was a walk in the country. Most of the time your mind was somewhere else. By the time you got to seventy, it was probably like watching snooker on the telly.

What I love about the theatre is that it's always metaphorical. It's like going back to being a kid again, and we're all pretending in a room. Sometimes, when the pretending really works, I find it much, much more moving than something on film.

The way of creating believable characters is not by conforming to a set of PC rules.

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

Bore children, and they stop reading. There's no room for self-indulgence or showing off or setting the scene.

Family, that slippery word, a star to every wandering bark, and everyone sailing under a different sky.