My parents were interested in history and the world. My father read Graham Greene and Georges Simenon and was a strong trade unionist and Labour supporter.
Humans have changed little over time. We think we've invented the modern world but they were making better speeches 2,000 years ago and grappling with issues of empire and terrorism.
If you go back, 'The Great Gatsby' would be a portrait of the rich and fortune made by business.
Politics is never a victory, it's just the remorseless grinding forward of events.
Cicero most reminds me of Harold Wilson. Both men knew how to keep the show on the road.
Orwell has always been a huge influence on me.
To tell a good story and to illuminate the world: the two things are completely linked. That is the point. That is what I've always wanted to do.
Storytelling has a narcotic power.
Writers of fiction should stick to writing, not pop up on panel shows or as a talking head.
First comes an idea. Then, characters begin to evolve out of the landscape of that idea. And then, finally, characters dominate: plot is simply a function of what these people might do or be. Everything has to flow from their personalities; otherwise it will not be emotionally engaging, or plausible.
It's when you've stopped writing and are doing other things, especially when you're asleep, that the real work is done.
You can't ever win the war on crime, or the war on terror. You can't repeal human nature.
I am sure future historians will say the biggest and most astonishing change in politics has been the embracing of all the tenets of Thatcherism by the party of Keir Hardie: trade union legislation, Europe, the replacement of Trident, 10 per cent tax for people who have made millions from their companies.
We say, 'The market plummets,' like it's some roaring creature.
If one tries to think about history, it seems to me - it's like looking at a range of mountains. And the first time you see them, they look one way. But then time changes, the pattern of light shifts. Maybe you've moved slightly, your perspective has changed. The mountains are the same, but they look very different.
Writers and journalists tend to be simplistic about politics when, like all other areas of life, it's more complicated.
Unlike the Holocaust, Stalin's murders are forgotten: dust blowing in the wind.
You know, you can be really quite subversive in popular fiction, which is capable of taking on big issues of politics, war, the rise and fall of commercial dynasties.
Don't try to write too much in a single session. One thousand words a day is quite enough. Stop after about four or five hours.
My father left school at 14, my mother at 13. My father was clever and well-read. He took a newspaper, always watched the news, discussed it all the time.
