I get an urge, like a pregnant elephant, to go away and give birth to a book.

People who can change and change again are so much more reliable and happier than those who can’t

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

Personally, I'd never seen a graphic novel. I knew they existed because friends of mine like Jonathan Ross collect them and some very literate and intelligent people really rate the graphic novel as a form.

There comes a time when the blankness of the future is just so extreme, it's like such a black wall of nothingness. Not of bad things like a cave full of monsters and so, you're afraid of entering it. It's just nothingness, the void, emptiness and it is just horrible. It's like contemplating a future-less future and so you just want to step out of it. The monstrosity of being alive overwhelms you.

It only takes a room of Americans for the English and Australians to realise how much we have in common.

My first words, as I was being born [...] I looked up at my mother and said, 'that's the last time I'm going up one of those.