I do not envy people who think they have a complete explanation of the world, for the simple reason that they are obviously wrong.

The liveliness of literature lies in its exceptionality, in being the individual, idiosyncratic vision of one human being, in which, to our delight and great surprise, we may find our own vision reflected.

I only met Margaret Thatcher twice. The thing that I thought about meeting her was how extraordinarily intelligent she was. You really had to be on your game otherwise she'd make mincemeat of you.

There is nothing like a War for the reinvention of lives.

The publishing of a book is a worldwide event. The attempt to suppress a book is a worldwide event.

It matters, it always matters, to name rubbish as rubbish; that to do otherwise is to legitimize it.

Human beings, you see, do absolutely two primary things. We see like and unlike. Like becomes, in literature, simile and metaphor. Unlike becomes uniqueness and difference, from which I believe, the novel is born.