Mother sighed with exasperation. "Look, there aren't any "people in charge of death". When you die you move to another part of London, that's all there is to it. Period.

I write because I feel driven to write. I write from a sense of inner necessity. I don't write for anything other than that.

There's a flip side to having prominent public intellectuals, which is that they start meddling in politics and often with quite disastrous results.

You know that sickening feeling of inadequacy and over-exposure you feel when you look upon your own empurpled prose? Relax into the awareness that this ghastly sensation will never, ever leave you, no matter how successful and publicly lauded you become. It is intrinsic to the real business of writing and should be cherished.

As a bookish adolescent, I sopped up texts as if I were blotting paper and they were fluid.

I enjoy doing very high mileages, partly out of masochism and also because I like to feel the shape of the landscape.

The life of the professional writer - like that of any freelance, whether she be a plumber or a podiatrist - is predicated on willpower. Without it there simply wouldn't be any remuneration, period.