beware of your most implacable enemy-yourself.

I know it's politically incorrect but I enjoy things like the kick boxing and cock fighting.

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.

Write for yourself, not for a perceived audience. If you do, you'll mostly fall flat on your face, because it's impossible to judge what people want. And you have to read. That's how you learn what is good writing and what is bad. Then the main thing is application. It's hard work.

I shot my first lion at the age of 14 when a pride threatened my father's livestock while he was away on holiday.

It's a strange paradox that a man gifted with too many talents can fritter them all away without developing a single one to its full.

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.