It's hard for me to measure them, or to assess my books because I'm so close to them.

Sometimes adults seem as though they have cut a chord from being a child.

I write short stories when a little idea occurs to me, that I know isn't a part of a novel that will stand by itself and should be concentrated.

When you grow up on an island, what matters is how you stand to the sea.

I wasn't even aware of the Year of the Family. I couldn't give a toss. These things - the year of the family, the year of the three-legged dog. I think it's all trash.

No matter how close to personal experience a story might be, inevitably you are going to get to a part that isn't yours and, actually, whether it happened or not becomes irrelevant. It is all about choosing the right words.

My parents were sixty years married.