Don't confuse honours with achievement.

The world is now multicultural the same way the world is round. It's not a selling point, it's not a 'quirky' feature, it's not a cynical marketing ploy, it's not an artistic statement, it's not even a plot device. It's a fact, like seedless grapes.

Don't live in a way that makes you feel dead.

In a whisper he began begging for—and, as the sun set, received—the concession people always beg for: a little more time.

I just realized quite early on that I'm not going to be the type who can write a novel every two years. I think you need to feel an urgency about the act. Otherwise, when you read it, you feel no urgency, either. So I don't write unless I really feel I need to, and that's a luxury.

He did not consider if or how or why he loved them. They were just love: they were the first evidence he ever had of love, and they would be the last confirmation of love when everything else fell away.

I wrote 'White Teeth' in the late nineties. I didn't really feel trepidatious about it. It was a different time.