A lot of people stop short. They don't actually die but they say, 'Right I'm old, and I'm going to retire,' and then they dwindle into nothing. They go off to Florida and become jolly boring.

I never really know the title of a book until it's finished.

Imagination which comes into play in falling in love is different from any other. Certainly in my case, and I've fallen in love all my life, one imagines the person to be as you want them to be. They frequently turn out to be someone different, for better or worse.

A lot of people stop short. They don't actually die but they say, 'Right I'm old, and I'm going to retire,' and then they dwindle into nothing. They go off to Florida and become jolly boring.

I always read that men don't like intelligent girls, but I've always found the reverse.

I have deliberately left Sylvester and Julia's appearances to the reader's imagination.

That image of the countryside being a threatening place still exists. People continue to resist the challenge of learning about aspects of life they don't understand.