I'm still writing in my old age. And still loving it. It fills my days. Writing is my salvation. I just get up in the morning, and I'm in this world that I scratch out and begin again and write over - and then suddenly it's lunchtime, and I'm back.

I loved teaching. It was my world. I only left because I was overwhelmed with three careers - teaching, writing, and my family.

If you have a friend, things are better than if you didn't have a friend.

Everything in my life affects my writing. There are no separate parts of my life.

I have no special talent, you know. I never took a writing course before I began to write.

Revision is the heart of writing. Every page I do is done over seven or eight times.

I myself was terrified during the Second World War. The war started when I was six, and I was so sure that we were going to be bombed and killed. My imagination is my biggest plus and my worst minus.