What distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first their sensibility and tenderness; second, their imagination, and third, their industry.

When you write, you write out of your best self. Everything else drops away.

England in a way is lucky. It's an island, so the frontiers are given by the sea.

Don't you know girls have to fool people every day of their lives if they want to get anywhere?

You can find shame in every house, burning in an ashtray, hanging framed upon a wall, covering a bed. But nobody notices it any more.

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

In a novel, if you're any good, you don't just have good people or bad people. You have complicated people. You have real people.