In the end, you write the book that grabs you by the throat and demands to be written.

I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.

It's so disappointing, to put it mildly, that people know so much about my life. Because it means that they're always trying to look at my books in terms of my life.

Everything has shape, if you look for it. There is no escape from form.

Sometimes writing a novel is not unlike having a baby. You'd have to ask a female novelist to compare the pain.

I have been a film buff all my life and believe that the finest cinema is fully the equal of the best novels.

It is very, very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it.