I think that writers are, at best, outsiders to the society they inhabit. They have a kind of detachment, or try to have.
There are few things as seemingly untouched by the real world as a child asleep.
My old coach used to say that if you were in it for the match, if you were in it for the trophies, you were in it for the wrong reasons.
The building of the architecture of a novel - the craft of it - is something I never tire of.
I have pretty thick skin, and I think if you're going to be in this business, if you're going to be an actor or a writer, you better have a thick skin.
I sometimes think that what I do as a writer is make a kind of colouring book, where all the lines are there, and then you put in the colour.
