All writers are thieves; theft is a necessary tool of the trade.

People's lives are in the care of the railways when they get on a train. The railways should remember that.

Adults get more confused by social worker jargon. Unlike children, they are also less likely to see two sides of an argument, and they no longer think they can make the world a better place. That can make them rather boring, I suppose.

People who don't read seem to me mysterious. I don't know how they think or learn about other people. Novels are a very important part of our education.

I dislike the word 'victim.' I dislike being told that I 'lost' my husband - as if I had idly abandoned you by the side of the railway track like an unwanted pair of old shoes.

I wanted to be a war reporter - scrabbling around, exposing things. I didn't want to go to university, I wanted to get a job, but Auntie Beryl said I should go to Oxford.

All writers are thieves; theft is a necessary tool of the trade.