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 have a garden, and I'm passionately interested in young people.

In my eighties, my best friends are in their fifties, and I have many friends at university. It keeps one young, and up with the vocabulary. That's terribly important, especially for a writer.

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

I don't write for any particular kind of person.

We all lie to each other, present some sort of front.

Each marriage has to be judged separately, and we never know what's going on in another person's marriage.