Honestly, I haven't the time to read contemporary writers. I know this is awful, but in the main it is true.

I suppose drama can either take the place of a novel or can be very closely allied with it. It's quite customary to turn a successful novel into a film or a television series because you can dramatize and pictorialize a novel.

For a small island, the place is remarkably diverse. Writers tend to see things from their own points of view, looking in one direction very much.

I wouldn't have thought that the techniques of story-telling, which is what the novel is after all, can vary much because there are two things involved.There's a story and there's a listener, whose attention you have to keep. Now the only way in which you can keep a reader's attention to a story is in his wanting to know what is going to happen next. This puts a fairly close restriction on the method you must use.

The thing is - fear can't hurt you any more than a dream.

As far as the novel is concerned in my own country, I think it's in a pretty healthy state.

This is our island. It's a good island. Until the grownups come to fetch us we'll have fun.