People want to forget the impossible. It makes their world safer.

The only thing that kept me going was stories. Stories are hope. They take you out of yourself for a bit, and when you get dropped back in, you're different- you're stronger, you've seen more, you've felt more. Stories are like spiritual currency.

Do you know why I stopped being Delight, my brother? I do. There are things not in your book. There are paths outside this garden.

Can't make an omelette without killing a few people.

Life is a disease, sexually transmitted and fatal.

The ducks in St James's Park are so used to being fed bread by secret agents meeting clandestinely that they have developed their own Pavlovian reaction. Put a St James's Park duck in a laboratory cage and show it a picture of two men -- one usually wearing a coat with a fur collar, the other something sombre with a scarf -- and it'll look up expectantly.

Going off the grid is always good for me. It's the way that I've started books and finished books and gotten myself out of deadline dooms and things.