Great, big, serious novels always get awards. If it's a battle between a great, big, serious novel and a funny novel, the funny novel is doomed.

For love is no part of the dreamworld. Love belongs to Desire, and Desire is always cruel.

A novel seemed the easiest way to get what I had had in my head into the inside of other people's heads. Books are good that way.

So, if a city has a personality, maybe it also has a soul. Maybe it dreams.

Whatever it takes to finish things, finish. You will learn more from a glorious failure than you ever will from something you never finished.

It's quiet. No cars. No birds. Nothing.' 'No radio waves,' said the Doctor. 'Not even Radio Four.' 'You can hear radio waves?' 'Of course not. Nobody can hear radio waves,' he said unconvincingly.

I do not threaten, I merely advise caution.