I see myself as anybody, as everybody; I'm not just telling the story of my life to give the reader a picture of who I am.

I was always interested in French poetry sort of as a sideline to my own work, I was translating contemporary French poets. That kind of spilled out into translation as a way to earn money, pay for food and put bread on the table.

We are continually shaped by the forces of coincidence.

I've written books that have taken me fifteen years, from first sentence to last, and some that only take three or four months.

Life is deeply tragic and also very comic at the same time. It's everything at once.

I don't think that you can be prescriptive about anything, I mean, life is too complicated. Maybe there are novels where the author has not in the least thought about it in terms of film, which can be turned into good films.

This is very rare for anyone in life to pursue something and that thing being the thing you actually most want to do. It's all about the inner, rather than the outer. Whether people like or don't like my work, read it or don't read it, it's just been a gift from the gods that I've been able to sit at my desk for the last almost 50 years and do the things I've wanted to do.