No-one is going to sit down and read Bleak House to the family any more, but they can all huddle up happily in front of Charles Bronson.

As someone once said, covers to a novel are like bars to a cage. You can watch the tiger, the Komodo dragon, and admire it - its heart, its severity. Even when they carry out an ugly act, it's still fascinating.

Style is not neutral; it gives moral directions.

It's tremendously important how you get on with the other sex. Your life record on that is incredibly important. You never really think about any of your other achievements.

I want incremental improvements. There's the record of all the revolutionary and violent change and extremism in general - it's dreadful.

Addictions do come in handy sometimes: at least you have to get out of bed for them.

Love is an abstract noun, something nebulous. And yet love turns out to be the only part of us that is solid, as the world turns upside down and the screen goes black.