When we think about the present, we veer wildly between the belief in chance and the evidence in favour of determinism. When we think about the past, however, it seems obvious that everything happened in the way that it was intended.

The most stupid religion is Islam.

The great advantage of a novel is you can put in whatever comes into your head - it has the same shape as the human brain.

Father died last year. I don't subscribe to the theory by which we only become truly adult when our parents die; we never become truly adult.

Why am I popular? I don't know. Is it a mistake? I should think it's a mistake somewhere.

I think she is going to find you too old... Yes that was it, the moment she said it I knew it was true, and the revelation caused me no surprise, it was like the echo of a dull, not unexpected shock. The age difference was the last taboo, the final limit, all the stronger for the fact that it remained the last and had replaced all the others. In the modern world you could be a swinger, bi, trans, zoo into S&M, but it was forbidden to be old.

I think that if writers don't speak about real life, it's because they don't know it.