That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing - which is never an easy thing to do.

I could meet dreadful people and end up seeing the world through their eyes, seeing their frailties, their needs.

I came to London. It had become the center of my world and I had worked hard to come to it. And I was lost.

You need someone to see what you've done, to read it and to understand it and to appreciate what's gone into it.

The past has to be seen to be dead; or the past will kill.

The ancillary aspect of every British city now is the council estate.

My life is short. I can't listen to banality.