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.

You have the older generation like Iris Murdoch and Angus Wilson who are not as old as Graham Greene, but still are coming on. I dare say anyone who knew the scene better than I know it could fill it in with a very satisfactory supply of novels.

One's intelligence may march about and about a problem, but the solution does not come gradually into view. One moment it is not. The next it is there.

For a small island [Great Britain], the place is remarkably diverse.

No human endeavour can ever be wholly good... it must always have a cost.

Put simply the novel stands between us and the hardening concept of statistical man. There is no other medium in which we can live for so long and so intimately with a character. That is the service a novel renders.

I am not a theologian or a philosopher. I am a story teller.