Writing novels is a way of living alternative lives.

History is too often the refuge of the tidy-minded, making neat patterns when the dust has settled.

Occasionally now I feel a wang that goes in my head - once you've got it you've got it. The [illness] was quite severe, leaving me deeply unhappy and frightened.

When anybody tells you something about writing, somebody will tell you something completely different and they will also be right

More people now work in the arts than the steel, coal and car industries combined.

There's nothing the British like better than a bloke who comes from nowhere, makes it, and then gets clobbered.

Writing novels is a way of living alternative lives.