Bumble-Ardy is a very wicked little child as far as I'm concerned. He's not to be trusted.

Art has always been my salvation.

We're animals. We're violent. We're criminal. And if I've done anything, I've had kids express themselves as they are.

And [he] sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him and it was still hot

I'm totally crazy, I know that.

I think it is unnatural to think that there is such a thing as a blue-sky, white-clouded happy childhood for anybody. Childhood is a very, very tricky business of surviving it. Because if one thing goes wrong or anything goes wrong, and usually something goes wrong, then you are compromised as a human being. You're going to trip over that for a good part of your life.

A book is really like a lover. It arranges itself in your life in a way that is beautiful.