It's probably true that everyone has a book in them, although it may not be a very good one.

My family wasn't terribly affluent and looked upon money very carefully as something that had to be saved, not spent. My father built the ducting that took air into the copper mines and made about 6 d a yard in the Thirties, which was good money back then.

They do say that socialism is the ideal philosophy-just as long as you have capitalists to pay for it.

You know that feeling when you finish a final exam and you think, 'I never want to do that again'? Well I have the same feeling when I finish a novel. Each time I say, 'I think I may retire now' and then after six months the ideas start to churn again. I could never stop.

I put my soul into every book I write.

You don't turn out as many books as I did then by sitting around, being cozy with the family.

I am a closet birdwatcher. I can identify Southern African species, but it irks me I can barely tell a jay from a blackbird in the U.K.