When I think of how things could have turned out, I feel as if I've dodged, not just bullets, but 6mm shells.

Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.

Comparing what we're looking for misses the point. It's wanting to know that makes us matter. Otherwise we're going out the way we came in. That's why you can't believe in the afterlife, Valentine. Believe in the after, by all means, but not the life. Believe in God, the soul, the spirit, the infinite, believe in angels if you like, but not in the great celestial get-together for an exchange of views. If the answers are in the back of the book I can wait, but what a drag. Better to struggle on knowing that failure is final.

Revolution is a trivial shift in the emphasis of suffering.

What did you have in mind? A short, blunt human pyramid?

I write scenes - often quite long scenes - mainly because I still get seduced into writing six lines where one and a half will do.

Carnal embrace is the practice of throwing one's arms around a side of beef.