Literature is the only access to truth we have on this planet.

Norwich is a fine city. None finer. If there is another city in the United Kingdom with a school of painters named after it, a matchless modern art gallery, a university with a reputation for literary excellence which can boast Booker Prize-winning alumni, one of the grandest Romanesque cathedrals in the world, and an extraordinary new state-of-the-art library then I have yet to hear of it.

Stop wanting wealth and fame and start wanting instead to do something well about which you are passionate

I never quite dare to believe I'm brave enough to be an artist, but I'm on the side of artists. I think of myself as a bit of a Salieri, looking with longing eyes at Mozart.

It's extremely unlucky to be superstitious, for no other reason than it is always unlucky to be colossally stupid.

I have pushed the boat out as far as I should in terms of taking on too many things. I'm getting older and I just could not take it any more. I am now monitoring myself very closely and I'm just trying not to get into that sort of state again.

If you go looking for loonies and religious fanatics and dropouts and freaks, I dare say you'll find it.