The joy of painting lies precisely in the challenge of memory and the challenge of translation from the lived experience to the two-dimensional or three-dimensional symbol.

This sort of encouragement is vital for any writer. And lastly the publication of Touching the Flame, which was on hold for two years and went through a few publishers before finding a stable home.

I don't know anyone who actually likes the dark or night-time. I don't care how much they say it doesn't bother them. That's why we used to huddle in caves and light fires when the sun went down.

Having said that, I'm a huge Jack Nicholson fan because he just goes nuts in everything he does. Having Jack in his heyday would also be a dream come true.

Sometimes I'll hear a phrase or a word and write it down in my little black notebook (a writer's best mate), then come back to it and work a plot around it.

Painting is a matter of finding the right balance between consoling and reassuring the eye and challenging and disturbing the eye.

Photos represent primarily a seductive but deleterious short cut.

The face of totalitarianism turned out to be a mask - obviously - but the face of Capitalism has no face at all.

Considering the amount of work I put into each piece, the amount I need to make from it is pretty high. I won't sell for less... but that means I rarely sell.

Writing can be a very solitary business. It's you sat at a desk typing words into a computer. It can get lonely sometimes and lots of writers live quite isolated lives.

I believe that, like most writers, my personality comes through in the fiction. So in that respect my writing can’t be like any other author’s really.

I hear a lot of people say, 'teenagers of this generation are so lost.' But I always wonder what they have been doing to help them discover themselves.

But I've bought a big bat.I'm all ready, you see.Now my troubles are goingTo have trouble with me!

The most terrifying thing in the world was having to give a speech at my girlfriend's wedding. I was physically shaking and sweating the entire time.

"Ecod, you may say what you like of my father, then, and so I give you leave," said Jonas. "I think it's liquid aggravation that circulates through his veins, and not regular blood..."

Cezanne is the Christopher Columbus of a new continent of form.

At its finest moments climbing allows me to step out of ordinary existence into something extraordinary, stripping me of my sense of self-importance.

Two armies are two bodies which meet and try to frighten each other.

I couldn't stop staring at the cave, back where Dimitri was, back where half of my soul was.

All the blues greats took chances and developed their own style. They didn't copy.

Finally the world would see my full range of comedy characters - from grouchy librarian to Russian librarian.