The water rose further and dressed Simon's coarse hair with brightness. The line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble.

I do like people to read the books twice, because I write my novels about ideas which concern me deeply and I think are important, and therefore I want people to take them seriously. And to read it twice of course is taking it seriously.

They accepted the pleasures of morning, the bright sun, the whelming sea and sweet air, as a time when play was good and life so full that hope was not necessary and therefore forgotten.

We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?

My yesterdays walk with me. They keep step, they are gray faces that peer over my shoulder.

I also know Patrick White in Australia, both personally and as a writer, and Salman Rushdie in India.

Nothing is so impenetrable as laughter in a language you don't understand.