I am writing a sequel to The Touch because I want to further explore the Chinese question that I have raised. There will be more about that in a sequel.

My fictitious characters will take the bit between their teeth and gallop off and do something that I hadn't counted on. However, I always insist on dragging them back to the straight and narrow

I want to know what they look like, their height, and colouring, physique and speech pattens.

There are no ambitions noble enough to justify breaking someone's heart.

If you love people, they kill you. If you need people, they kill you. They do I tell you!

I hate being on my best behavior. It brings out the absolute worst in me.

The Labour Party of today has fits of horrors of the very thought of somebody like me might saying that they bought in white Australia. But I believe they did.

The lovely thing about being forty is that you can appreciate twenty-five-year-old men more.

What was sleep? A blessing, a respite from life, an echo of death, a demanding nuisance?

Belief doesn't rest on proof or existence...it rests on faith...without faith there is nothing.

That's the purpose of old age... To give us a breathing space before we die, in which to see why we did what we did.

If you want to be strong, smile! He who can smile, even when he's so sad that he wants to die, when it's so painful that he wants to give it all up and run away, is the one who becomes strong.

Irony is easier than hopeless silence but braver than flight.

Were the stars against him? A woman's fingers are quicker in the sky and shine more brightly.

You're not broken. You're perfect. And when you get to get away from these kids, you might finally have a good man.

I am not menopausal. I just wanted half an hour alone. Is that too much to ask? A crappy half hour!

All that is good in art is the expression of one soul talking to another, and is precious according to the greatness of the soul that utters it.

When people mean to be good to you, you don't mind very much when they're not quite—always.

I'm a little funny when it comes to blood and guts and stuff like that.

She bent her neck back and kissed him like she never had before. Like she wasn't scared of doing it wrong.

The dream is free. The hustle is sold separately.