English country life is more like Chekhov than The Archers or Thomas Hardy or even the Updike ethic with which it is sometimes compared.

I just knew I would be a writer. It just seemed the only sensible thing to do.

Somewhere inside we do know everything about ourselves. There is no real forgetting. Perhaps we know somewhere, too, about all there is to come.

I think the most dangerous influence for a young writer is to be treated with cynicism or discouragement.

I gave myself to my children. It happens to some women.

If you've not been loved as a child, you don't know how to love a child.

Jane Austen we know never let two men converse alone in any novel because what they said would be unknown to her.

Laywers, I suppose, were children once.

All my life I have felt events to be the result of my own sins.

We can all be giants in moments of peace and harmony, but to stay a giant in adversity is the true test of one’s mettle.

The heart is resilient and forgiving, it is the mind that causes us stress.

I am an atheist.

Isn’t it interesting, that a black man, who is a Muslim, and has the name ‘Muhammad’, is the most beloved athlete in the world?

I still read newspaper comics, but without much hope for their future.

One of the things I'm most proud of about my career is the fact I've managed to keep options open.

I wish the battles of men could be solved in their heads.

I like crime movies where the crime is so incredible that, attractive as it seems, you don't wanna do it because it's just too dangerous.

The eye doesn't see any shapes, it sees only what is differentiated through light and dark or through colors.

There's just a misconception that comes with being a dual-threat quarterback. You run first, throw second. I've proven I throw first and then run if I have to.