We are the slaves of slaves

I am as I am. The world is as it is. Whether I am content with that has very little to do with it.

If you die, I'll die.' 'But is you live, I'll live.' - Bowman and Kestrel, Firesong

Everyone deserves to be the hero of a novel.

We read to know that we are not alone.

Madly, futilely, I wrote novel after novel, eight in all, that failed to find a publisher. I persisted because for me the novel was the supreme literary form: not just one among many, not a relic of the past, but the way we communicate to one another the subtlest truths about this business of living.

The English seem to think drinking wine is like committing adultery, something you do rarely and abroad.