To tell you the truth, I'm not unhappy about it. I'm not even sure that I like the idea of adapting novels into films. It's very difficult to do, and it usually doesn't work. There are exceptions, but generally speaking, one feels disappointed with the result.

I use things, I steal things from my life when I want to, when I need to, or when it seems appropriate. But most of the stuff in my novels is entirely invented, ninety-five percent. And even when I do borrow something, it becomes fictionalized.

All through my writing life I've had this impulse to write autobiographical works.

There are often references to childhood, but they're rarely the focus of the [my] novels.

It would be a terrible world if everyone was an artist. Nothing would get done!

But lost chances are as much a part of life as chances taken, and a story cannot dwell on what might have been.

Guilt kept me going. It was impossible not to blame myself for what had happened, but even guilt was a comfort. It was a human feeling, a sign that I was still attached to the same world that other men lived in.