Even when things are at their worst, there's a little voice in your head saying, 'Good story!'

I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity.

In the movies, the writer is just the servant, the employee.

My children are English, and both of their mothers were English.

A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.

I don't dictate to anyone what to believe and what not to. And I don't want that to be dictated to me either.

Everest silences you...when you come down, nothing seems worth saying, nothing at all. You find the nothingness wrapping you up, like a sound. Non-being. You can't keep it up, of course. the world rushes in soon enough. What shuts you up is, I think, the sight you've had of perfection: why speak if you can't manage perfect thoughts, perfect sentences? It feels like a betrayal of what you've been through. But it fades; you accept that certain compromises, closures, are required if you're to continue.