Take It and Like It

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.

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.

You cannot sell the cow and sup the milk.

Any time you have a situation in which you are calling for more time rather than calling for Iraq to immediately comply, it plays into the hands of Saddam Hussein.

It's weird because I always seem to be dead. I'm gonna have to change that because I wouldn't want to be typecast.

It is noble to be shy, illustrious not to know how to act, great not to have a gift for living.

Life is slippery. Here, take my hand.

It's fun to get really intense and emotionally detailed and complicated.

God is always near us. Always for us. Always in us.

What kind of truth is it which has these mountains as its boundary and is a lie beyond them?

The help which tends to make us spiritually strong is the highest help, next to it comes intellectual help and after that comes physical help.

Before mobile phones, I used to call my parents from a phone box and reverse the charges.