Once you've been backstage at a theater, the theater is never the same for you. Once you've noticed the crack in the vase, the vase is never the same for. Once you've seen a friend do something appalling, the friendship is never the same. That does not mean you won't go to the theater, or keep the vase or the friend. You can choose.

I always consider every place worth exploring once- just in case there's a thirty foot flaming sign divulging the secret of life, that no one has told me about.

Few pleasures are greater than knowing you can close your door, ignore the world and create your own.

The way British publishing works is that you go from not being published no matter how good you are, to being published no matter how bad you are.

Criticism is part of being in the marketplace. If you can't take a bit of criticism, you shouldn't bother publishing a book.

I never could get a proper job.

No one wants a masterpiece knocking around when your own book is looking for attention.