I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of normal work.

I never know where I am going, though. That is part of what makes it so wonderful. And after all, who does?

Pirates have always fascinated me.

I like films, or some films, and would be intrigued to see my work on screen.

I held out my book. It was precious to me, as were all the things I'd written; even where I despised their inadequacy there was not one I would disown. Each tore its way from my entrails. Each had shortened my life, killed me with its own special little death.

I love writers all across the board, but one who influenced me very directly at the beginning was Mary Renault.

No one more cynical than an idealist.