I know I was writing stories when I was five. I don't know what I did before that. Just loafed I suppose.

I am not always good and noble. I am the hero of this story, but I have my off moments.

It ought to be a criminal offence for women to dye their hair. Especially red. What the devil do women do that sort of thing for?

I think the success of every novel - if it's a novel of action - depends on the high spots. The thing to do is to say to yourself, 'Which are my big scenes?' and then get every drop of juice out of them. The principle I always go on in writing a novel is to think of the characters in terms of actors in a play. I say to myself, if a big name were playing this part, and if he found that after a strong first act he had practically nothing to do in the second act, he would walk out. Now, then, can I twist the story so as to give him plenty to do all the way through?

It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.

At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies.

When you're alone you don't do much laughing.