Jeremy tried to be an interesting person. The trouble was that he was the kind of person who, having decided to be an interesting person, would first of all try to find a book called How to Be An Interesting Person and then see whether there were any courses available.

She was a beefy young woman and, whatever piece of music she was playing, it was definitely losing.

I'm interested in mythology generally, but India has no special place in my heart - although Hindu gods seem a lot more fun.

It was sad music. But it waved its sadness like a battle flag. It said the universe had done all it could, but you were still alive.

It's a guilty secret of a lot of writers, as you get older you don't read as much fiction as you used to, mainly because it's like you are deconstructing it all the time.

And we don't often get any wading birds in the River Ankh, mainly because the pollution would eat their legs away and anyway, it's easier for them to walk on the surface.

We have been so successful in the past century at the art of living longer and staying alive that we have forgotten how to die. Too often we learn the hard way. As soon as the baby boomers pass pensionable age, their lesson will be harsher still.