The marvellous thing about writing, whether it be fiction or journalism, is that it is simultaneously the most intimate and the most anonymous of meetings between people. It is profoundly intimate in reaching into the psyche of another, at the same time as being devoid of social characteristics, cultural characteristics, economic characteristics.

I'm going to end up like one of those old weirdos who lives in a network of tunnels burrowed through trash - yet I do not fear this.

This is the paradox for me: in failure alone is there any possibility of success. I don't think I'm alone in this - nor do I think it's an attitude that only prevails among people whose work is obviously "creative".

The cynics are correct the sense of freewill is only that feeling which we have when we take the necessitated option that most appeals to us.

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

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.

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.