Each life is a game of chess that went to hell on the seventh move(...)

America has had much more respect for its writers because they had to define what America was. America wasn't sure what it was.

My literary career kicked off in 1956 when, as a resident of Swansea, South Wales, I published my first novel, 'Lucky Jim.

When it comes to flying, I am a nervous passenger but a confident drinker and Valium-swallower.

One thing you can't help noticing in South America and in Latin culture, generally, is how nice people are. Although when I went back to Spain - my mother lived in Spain and both my brothers lived there - after the Uruguay trip, I thought, "Oh great, Hispanic people." But they weren't nearly as nice as the Uruguayans. They're quite proud and pissed off, the Spaniards.

People are always talking on their phones, or looking at their phones, because they don't want to be alone with their thoughts.

I say the sentences again and again in my head until they sound right.