So when I studied history at Cambridge, I did a special subject in that, exactly that. And then actually that - while I was studying it was where I came across the so-called incident of the satanic verses.

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

The world is full of things that upset people. But most of us deal with it and move on and don't try and burn the planet down.

Hell is other people's fantasies.

I didn't become a writer to write about me.

A figure of speech is a shifty thing; it can be twisted or it can be straight.

We who have grown up on a diet of honour and shame can still grasp what must seem unthinkable to people living in the aftermath of the death of God and of tragedy: that men will sacrifice their dearest love on the implacable altars of their pride.