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

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.

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.

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.

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

Opportunity is another word for moving on. And it is a word choice, which is often the wiser. If the well gets poisoned, move to a meadow of merriment, where your hearts will echo the more.

Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.

The average man, if he meddles with criticism at all, is a conservative critic.

I can count on one hand the number of instrumental hits there have been over the last 10 years.

Death is very, very terminal.

Love, no matter how it's expressed, is still love. We all have flaws, and so our love will be flawed. But that doesn't diminish it.

I am proud to be a Southerner.

The music has to be affordable. It's the common man that keeps it going, and if you price it out of his realm, it becomes a thing of the elite.

If I can wheedle A knife or a needle, Why not a Silver Churn?