When I was a child, we seemed to be living in a world remote from the rest of the world. But television has made a great difference to all of us.

You can't change a regime on the basis of compassion. There's got to be something harder.

I don't think I am a citizen of the world; I am very much a citizen of my own country. But my own country is closely related to other parts of the world and influenced by what happens there.

Mumbling obeisance to abhorrence of apartheid is like those lapsed believers who cross themselves when entering a church.

Writing is making sense of life.

Fiction is a way of exploring possibilities present but undreamt of in the living of a single life.

I never talk about what I'm writing about currently, never. It's private work on your own, no need or obligation to talk about it. Writers are made into performers these days, including myself, but there are some instances in which I will not perform.