I wanted to be a poet when I was 20; I had no interest in fiction or biography and precious little interest in history, but those three elements in my life have become the most important.

There are so many characters whizzing around inside my head, it's like Looney Tunes. But as soon as I've finished writing about them, I completely forget who they are.

Why should a novelist not also be a historian? To force unnatural divisions within the English language is to work against its capacious and accommodating nature. To expect a writer to produce only novels, or only histories, is equivalent to demanding from a composer that he or she write only string quartets or piano sonatas.

I strike up conversations all the time and it is very interesting, finding out about things I know nothing about.

I am in the Pitte, but I have gone so deep that I can see the brightness of the Starres at Noon.

I think biography can be more personal than fiction, and certainly can be more expressive.

Familial love can find an echo in our own hearts just as it did in that of Charles Dickens.