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.

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

Sleep is when all the unsorted stuff comes flying out as from a dustbin upset in a high wind.

Worse than madness. Sanity.

As soon as Oliver Twist is serialized, people who would never dream of reading [Charles] Dickens, if they hadn't seen him on their box, buy the paperback.

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.

While I am on, I can discipline myself to that extent. When I am off, I can't discipline myself at all. On the other hand, when I am off, there are so many things I like doing, it doesn't really matter.