I liked books - the respite and privacy of them - books about plants and the formation of ice and the business of world wars. Whenever I sank into them I felt free.
Who wants to be reputable? That's for golfers and tycoons with a sleazy past.
Whatever you believe, you need faith to get through the day.
Wherever I went I felt like the last person awake in a room full of sleepers
People do change - individuals, families, nations - and the pace of transformation need not be geological.
I don't consciously watch and file lived moments for my work. I have a couple of writer friends who do that and it creeps me out, to be honest. I know people think I must do that too, but I don't. But I do have a long memory.