I don't have a deep link with England like, say, Jonathan Coe or Hanif Kureishi might demonstrate. For me it is like a mythical place.

The evening's the best part of the day. You've done your day's work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.

There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.

Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading.

Many of our deepest motives come, not from an adult logic of how things work in the world, but out of something that is frozen from childhood.

She always wanted to believe in things.

Love isn't about when you first meet. It's about the many, many years you spend together, when you're trying to keep that flame burning.

Our family arrived in England in 1960. At that time I thought the war was ancient history. But if I think of 15 years ago from now, thats 1990, and that seems like yesterday to me.

Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers.

As a writer, I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.

If you are under the impression you have already perfected yourself, you will never rise to the heights you are no doubt capable of.

To repent is to return to God.

We are all Clapping Monkeys, but while some of us smile, others look around to see if anyone has noticed.

I always want to sleep on the third date.

It often requires more courage to suffer in silence than to rebel, more courage not to strike back than to retaliate, more courage to be silent than to speak.

Always wear high heels. Yes, they give you power. you move differently, sit differently and even speak differently.

Hair wax is my go-to. When it comes to shampoo, I use whatever is at the rink.

Morals aren't just for when it's easy, Anita. They aren't morals if you throw them aside every time it's convenient.

I think the reason working-class people don't write books is because they are encouraged to believe that only certain people are permitted to write books.

Nations which don't find their national identities will be preyed upon by other nations.

The experience of our generation: that capitalism will not die a natural death.