"The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them — words make them seem smaller than they were when they were in your head. …"

"We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones."

"The world is full of other people’s ideas. Don’t get stuck in them."

"The first duty of a novelist is to entertain. If you don't entertain, then all the deeper stuff is lost."

"We were having tea with my mother-in-law the other day and out of the blue she said, 'I've decided I want to be cremated.' I said, 'Alright, get your coat.'"