Ideologists of all kinds find a strange sort of comfort in the madness of the crowd; it confirms them in their suspicion that history, far from being made by the great mass of individuals - as Marx averred - is rather unmade by a single massive individual, a collective Other, who stands in stark contrast to you and he.

I loathe computers more and more, so I have one I can shut down and shelve like a book.

It might be an idea for all literary critics to read the books they analyse aloud - it certainly helps to fix them in the mind, while providing a readymade seminar with your audience.

Here we meet, on the page, naked and unadorned: shorn of class, race, gender, sexual identity, age and nationality.

I think of writing as a sculptural medium. You are not building things. You are removing things, chipping away at language to reveal a living form.

A party full of 'likeable' people doesn't bear contemplating.

I am a regular if not exactly enthusiastic patron of my local bookshop. I try to buy at least some books there because I cling to the belief that it's important to maintain those businesses which put a human face on the exchange of money for goods and services.