For many weeks after [my wife] died, I could not get used to the feeling of coldness and lifelessness on her side of the bed - and it was even worse when they took the body away and buried her.

I like the rain before it falls. of course there is no such thing, she said. That's why it's my favorite. Something can still make you happy, can't it, even if it isn't real.

I'm one of those unlucky people who had a happy childhood.

The writer I feel the most affinity with - you said you felt my books are 19th century novels, I think they're 18th century novels - is Fielding, Henry Fielding, he's the guy who does it for me.

Objectivity is just male subjectivity.

You would go mad if you began to speculate about the impact your novel might have while you were still writing it.

Writers never feel comfortable having labels attached to them, however accurate they are.

Contemporary Britain seems an endlessly fascinating place to me - but if I knew a little bit more about other places, and other times, maybe it wouldn't.

Some people don't realize that a straight 'No' can be the kindest answer in the world.

Ah, well, I have no talent for nonfiction, that's my problem.

The more melancholy side of my literary personality is much in tune with BS Johnson's.

If you smile with passion, you will become a model at your very own fashion show.

Like most other events that change the world, it didn't seem interesting to anyone except the people willing to do the work.

You are significantly more likely to die in a car accident, especially if you fail to wear a seat belt, than to be attacked by ISIS. Wear your seat belt

BATH, n. A kind of mystic ceremony substituted for religious worship, with what spiritual efficacy has not been determined.

There is a joke that your hammer will always find nails to hit. I find that perfectly acceptable

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction

You cannot enjoy others until you enjoy yourself because you cannot give to others what you do not have.

This truth: that he, the avatar of light, Supreme Master of the Jedi Order, the fiercest, most impeccable, most devastatingly powerful foe the darkness had ever known... just- didn't- have it.

Well Kerry, you're 19 and you're a lot older than a lot of people younger than yourself.

Decisions are made by people who have time, not people who have talent.