The first 50 years of the cinema were absolutely great years. Original minds were at work establishing the ways to tell a story. And what is happening now is a copying, a pastiche-ing of what was done by great men.

When I learnt to write I became my own master, I became very strong, and that strength is with me to this very day.

Small things start us in new ways of thinking

My publisher, who was so good as a taster and editor, when she became a writer, lo and behold, it was all this feminine tosh.

I really wasn't equipped to be a writer when I left Oxford. But then I set out to learn. I've always had the highest regard for the craft. I've always felt it was work.

Judgment is contained in the act of trying to understand.

I have always moved by intuition alone. I have no system, literary or political. I have no guiding political idea.