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

I don't actually believe in the extension of consciousness after death.

English fiction was something I loved growing up, and it changed my life - it changed the trajectory of my life.

Sometimes you get a flash of what you look like to other people.

When I was young, I was very technical about these things. I didn't like to admit to any intimate relation with what I was writing.

Surely there is something to be said for drawing a circle around our attention and remaining within that circle. But how large should this circle be?

Some people--Samad for example--will tell you not to trust people who overuse the phrase "at the end of the day"--football managers, estate agents, salesmen of all kinds--but Archie's never felt that way about it. Prudent use of said phrase never failed to convince him that his interlocutor was getting to the bottom of things, to the fundamentals.