I wish my prose to be transparent—I don't want the reader to stumble over me; I want him to look through what I'm saying to what I'm describing. I don't want him ever to say, Oh, goodness, how nicely written this is. That would be a failure.

All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there.

Writing has to support itself.

If you write a novel alone you sit and you weave a little narrative. And it's O.K., but it's of no account.

When I learnt to write I became my own master, I became very strong, and that strength is with me to this very day.

One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.

Whenever I have had to write fiction, I've always had to invent a character who roughly has my background.

Many writers tend to write summing-up books at the end of their lives.