For myself and my loved ones, I want the heat, which comes at the speed of light. I don't want to have to hang about for the blast, which idles along at the speed of sound.

Fiction is the only way to redeem the formlessness of life

When we read, we are doing more than delectating words on a page stories, characters, images, notions. We are communing with the mind of the author.

It's good fun to create an unpredictable character. When he comes into the room, I don't know what he's going to do - I have to find my way.

All my adult life I have been searching for the right adjective to describe my father's peculiarly aggressive comic style. I recently settled on 'defamatory.

So I am lonely, but not alone, like everybody else.

I hire tea by the tea bag.