No poet is ever completely lost. He has the secret of his childhood safe with him, like some secret cave in which he can kneel. And, when we read his poetry, we can join him there.

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

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 don't in any sense think of myself as a celebrity, which of course I'm not.

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

Oh, I just tend to believe in things when I'm writing them. For instance, when I was writing 'Doctor Dee,' I believed in magic. And when I wrote 'Hawksmoor' I believed in psychic geography. But as soon as I type the last full stop, I'm back to being a complete blank again.

The English have always been greedy for news of times past, with that mixture of fatalism and melancholy which is part of the national character.