One should never underestimate the power of books.

Changing your mind is probably one of the most beautiful things people can do. And I've changed my mind about a lot of things over the years.

I was extremely shy. And I simply didn't know how to go about it. It seemed a lot easier to write than to make films. All I needed was a pencil and a piece of paper, whereas filmmaking was something I had no access to.

As Siri says, who is deeply involved with neuroscience, emotion consolidates memory, and I think that's true.

I've found that writing novels is an all-absorbing experience - both physical and mental - and I have to do it every day in order to keep the rhythm, to keep myself focused on what I'm doing.

That's all I've ever dreamed of, Mr. Bones. To make the world a better place. To bring some beauty to the drab humdrum corners of the soul. You can do it with a toaster, you can do it with a poem, you can do it by reaching out your hand to a stranger. It doesn't matter what form it takes. To leave the world a little better than you found it. That's the best a man can ever do.

The fiction is not autobiographical. Maybe to some extent it is, of course.