Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we know that if at any point between the beginning and the end of his journey he stops moving and does not get off the bicycle he will fall off it. That is a metaphor for the journey through life of any living thing, and I think of any society of living things.

Ralph... would treat the day's decisions as though he were playing chess. The only trouble was that he would never be a very good chess player.

And I've been wearing specs since I was three.

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

However you disguise novels, they are always biographies.

Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?

I don't think they [contemporary writers] read me either. I mean, if we're concerned genuinely with writing, I think we probably get on with our work.