Every time I write a book, I've probably taken five years off my life.

We who were born were not witnesses to our birth: like death, it is something we are forever after trying to catch sight of.

A sentence is born into this world neither good nor bad, and that to establish its character is a question of the subtlest possible adjustments, a process of intuition to which exaggeration and force are fatal.

Honest criticism, I suppose, has its place. But honest writing is infinitely more valuable.

Having your second child, in case you were wondering, is a lot harder than having your first, except for those people who find it easier. I'm afraid I don't have the latest figures to confirm this.

I'm waiting for the day when my children cease to find my domestic propriety reassuring and actually find it annoying.

I don't go to church any more, but I think that Catholicism is rather like the brand they use on cattle: I feel so formed in that Catholic mould that I don't think I could adopt any other form of spirituality. I still get feelings of consolation about churches.