Philosophy and Religion-what are they when the wind blows and the water gets up in lumps?

Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!

I'm not a critic so much of my own writing. People must make up their own minds over that.

One thing should be put firmly. Where people have commented on that novel [The Paper Men], they generally criticize the poor academic, Rick L. Tucker, who is savaged by the author, Wilfred Barclay. I don't think people have noticed that I have been far ruder about Barclay than I have been about Tucker. Tucker is a fool, but Barclay is a swine. The author really gets his come-uppance.

When you take a child who's hollering like hell, sit him on your knee, and say "once upon a time", you stop him hollering. As long as you go on telling him a story, he will listen. Novelists who neglect this fundamental effect do so at their peril. They become what is known as the experimental novelist, and an experimental novel is not really a novel at all.

Language fits over experience like a straight-jacket.

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