Fate is a quantity very much like TV: an unstoppable narrative, written, produced and directed by somebody else.

You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality.

As far as I'm concerned, if you want to find out about the last day of WWII or the roots of the Indian Mutiny, get thee to a books catalogue.

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.

Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.

Time is how you spend your love.

I am the sole author of the dictionary that defines me.

Don't confuse honours with achievement.

Pulchritude--beauty where you would least suspect it, hidden in a word that looked like it should signify a belch or a skin infection.

Every new morning, I write a grateful gratitude for the new grace.

you knowI knowyou knowI'll remember youand I knowYou knowI knowyou'll remember me

The proverb warns that "You should not bite that hand that feeds you." But maybe you should if it prevents you from feeding yourself.

My work is intensely personal.

Dare you see a Soul at the White Heat?

Voting is the first duty of democracy.

People who try to create a musical revolution do not have a chance, but those who turn their back to music can sometimes find it.

Parenthood is the passing of a baton, followed by a lifelong disagreement as to who dropped it.

Do something for the joy of doing it and pray you won't be punished.

Politics is a contact sport.