It's very important to feel foreign. I was born in England, but when I'm being a writer, everyone in England is foreign to me.

The novel...creates a bemusing effect. The short story, on the other hand wakes the reader up. Not only that, it answers the primitive craving for art, the wit, paradox and beauty of shape, the longing to see a dramatic pattern and significance in our experience.

We are used to the actions of human beings, not to their stillness.

Short stories can be rather stark and bare unless you put in the right details. Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better.

A short story is. . .frequently the celebration of character at bursting point.

One recalls how much the creative impulse of the best-sellers depends upon self-pity. It is an emotion of great dramatic potential.

Queen Victoria - a mixture of national landlady and actress.