Grief is a funny thing because you don't have to carry it with you for the rest of your life. After a bit you set it down by the roadside and walk on and leave it.

She put out her hand and touched his forearm, as she would have touched some piece of porcelain or sculpture, just for the sheer animal pleasure of feeling its shape and curve beneath her fingertips.

It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive. Arrival often brings nothing but a sense of desolation and disappointment.

It was better not to get too close to another person. The closer you got, the more likely you were to get hurt.

Writing is work, but it's also a compulsion, and once you get your characters on paper, you can't abandon them. You have to respond to them.

And the wicked thing is, that when we're really upset, we always take it out on the people who are closest and whom we love the most.

They will come, not to paint the bay and the sea and the boots and the moors, but the warmth of the sun and the colour of the wind. A whole new concept. Such stimulation. Such vitality.