Art is a gift: you create and then you give away. How readers receive that gift is their business. If they hate it, that’s their response to it. Others respond by liking it. Either way, that is their interaction with the book, which is no longer mine.

We commonly say in the trade that the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.

I think art comes from some sense of discomfort with the world, some sense of not quite fitting with it.

My greatest wish — other than salvation — was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One I could read again and again, with new eyes and a fresh understanding each time.

My greatest wish - other than salvation - was to have a book.

A great literary work can be completely, completely unpredictable. Which can sometimes make them very hard to read, but it gives them a great originality.

As much as I love movies, it would be presumptuous of me to think that I know how to make one.