Reality might be described as the eternal equipoise of positive and negative.

The distinctive feature of my family was intolerance of sensitivity and emotion - everything's great, it all has to be great all the time and why do you have to spoil it? Whereas probably the most fundamental and important thing to me has been defending my right to tell the truth about how I feel.

Hope is one of those no-win-no-fee things, and although it needs some encouragement to survive, its existence doesn't necessarily prove anything.

I think a lot of artists no longer want to participate in or be associated with narrative because of its corruptedness in contemporary culture.

The creativity of childhood was often surrendered amid feelings of unworthiness. So the idea that ­others are demanding to be given it back - to be "taught" - is disturbing.

My children are living, thinking human beings. It isn't in my power to regret them, for they belong to themselves.

The British have always made terrible parents.