Tell someone you are going to rob them and all that will happen is that you'll get a reputation as a truthful man.

Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off.

You know I've never agreed with baths. Sittin' around in your own dirt like that.

There can be no better grounding for a lifetime as an author than to see humanity in all its various guises through the lens of the reporter for the town.

He moved on, in the centre of a widening circle. He wasn't an enemy, he was a nemesis.

Oh dear me, the Booker people don't like me. I don't care. I have been given an award for being taken not seriously, and I am very, very pleased about that.

The storm was really giving it everything it had. This was its big chance. It had spent years hanging around the provinces, putting in some useful work as a squall, building up experience, making contacts, occasionally leaping out on unsuspecting shepherds or blasting quite small oak trees. Now an opening in the weather had given it an opportunity to strut its hour, and it was building up its role in the hope of being spotted by one of the big climates.