Under every friendship there is a difficult sentence that must be said, in order that the friendship can be survived.

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

No matter what anyone says, suicide takes guts. It's for heroes and martyrs, truly vainglorious men. Archie was none of these. He was a man whose significance in the Greater Scheme of Things could be figured along familiar ratios: Pebble : Beach Raindrop : Ocean Needle : Haystack

Sometimes, one wants to have the illusion that one is making ones own life, out of ones own resources.

I cannot believe homosexuality is that much fun. Heterosexuality certainly is not.

Writing is my way of expressing - and thereby eliminating - all the various ways we can be wrong-headed.

Life’s not a video game, Felix- there aren’t a certain number of points that send you to the next level. There isn’t actually any next level. The bad news is that everybody dies at the end. Game Over.