Language tethers us to the world; without it we spin like atoms.

I didn't want it to be a book that made pronouncements.

I'm now an agnostic but I grew up on the King James version, which I'm eternally grateful for.

the days of our lives vanish utterly, more insubstantial than if they had been invented. Fiction can seem more enduring than reality.

Wars are fought by children. Conceived by their mad demonic elders, and fought by boys.

Every novel generates its own climate, when you get going.

There's a preoccupation with memory and the operation of memory and a rather rapacious interest in history.