Any fool can write a novel but it takes real genius to sell it.

But I wouldn't recommend writing. You can be a successful writer and never meet another soul. I'm not sure that's a good thing.

I came to live in Shepperton in 1960. I thought: the future isn't in the metropolitan areas of London. I want to go out to the new suburbs, near the film studios. This was the England I wanted to write about, because this was the new world that was emerging.

If I don't write, I begin to feel unsettled and uneasy, as I gather people do who are not allowed to dream.