Writing is pretty crummy on the nerves.

Fiction writing, and the reading of it, and book buying, have always been the activities of a tiny minority of people, even in the most-literate societies.

I like the idea of isolation, I like the idea of solitude. You can be connected and have a phone and still be lonely.

You can't write about a friend, you can only write about a former friend.

You define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, you weren't nauseated by the food. So you are grateful.

People talk about the pain of writing, but very few people talk about the pleasure and satisfaction.

There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment.