I am addicted to arrivals, to those innocent dawn moments from which history accelerates.

I am addicted to arrivals, to those innocent dawn moments from which history accelerates.

We all need a past - that's where our sense of identity comes from.

I believe that the experience of childhood is irretrievable. All that remains, for any of us, is a headful of brilliant frozen moments, already dangerously distorted by the wisdoms of maturity.

The idea that memory is linear is nonsense. What we have in our heads is a collection of frames. As to time itself-can it be linear when all these snatches of other presents exist at once in your mind? A very elusive and tricky concept, time.

All I know for certain is that reading is of the most intense importance to me; if I were not able to read, to revisit old favorites and experiment with names new to me, I would be starved - probably too starved to go on writing myself.

All history, of course, is the history of wars.