But I didn’t dare. That has always been my trouble. I’ve never dared enough.

Characters are the key to a good book. It took me several novels to comprehend that.

Theatre can transform a child's life, just as an early cultural experience whether with opera, ballet, music or art is a wonderful thing because it opens the door to a life-long experience, a life-long enjoyment.

When I write I try as far as possible to forget I'm writing it at all. I tell it down onto the page, as if I'm telling it to one person only, my best friend.

Being his real brother I could feel I live in his shadows, but I never have and I do not now. I live in his glow.

It's what I'll be singing in the morning. It won't be God Save the Ruddy King or All Things bleeding Bright and Beautiful. It'll be Orange and Lemons for Big Joe, for all of us.

Genuinely good people are like that. The sun shines out of them. They warm you right through.