(and Catholics give out forgiveness at about the same rate as politicians give out promises and whores give out)

Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand - but tell it.

There's a perception that novels can't usually allow for your kind of absolute attention to detail.

I have a natural tendency to feel well about the world, I suppose, one way or another. But then there is the problem of pain. There are things like [Abraham] Lincoln's beloved little boy dying.

'A reality shaped around your own desires' - there is something sociopathic in that ambition.

The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.

The really heroic thing about Nick Hornby is that he lives in north London and rarely leaves it... Every English writer needs their corner that is forever England - but only a few brave men choose to make that corner Highbury.