Having instant feedback on twitter to research material I'm considering is an enormous help.

It is through our extended family that we first learn to compromise and come to an understanding that even if we don't always agree about things we can still love and look out for each other.

I always thought that bagels and lox was my soul food, but it turns out it's sushi.

Something I notice speaking to writers from south of Hadrians Wall is that the culture is different. At base, I think Scotland values its creative industries differently from England.

I jealously guard my research time and I love fully immersing myself in those dusty old books and papers. It's one of the most enjoyable parts of my job.

The sky was a sparkling succession of black diamonds on black velvet made crystal clear by the blackout.

I believe the era of the militant lady is back.

Without archives many stories of real people would be lost, and along with those stories, vital clues that allow us to reflect and interpret our lives today.

Research material can turn up anywhere - in a dusty old letter in an archive, a journal or some old photographs you find in a charity shop.

Writers of novels live in a strange world where what's made up is as important as what's real.

Books have a vital place in our culture. They are the source of ideas, of stories that engage and stretch the imagination and most importantly, inspire.

There is a whole generation of people who are going to see movies or watch TV who don't want to work.

I couldn't regard myself as personally repulsive. No man can, or, if he ever comes to do so, that is the end of him.

You need to take your gut feeling as an important data point, but then you have to consciously and deliberately evaluate it, to see if it makes sense in this context.

The ideal way to get rid of any infectious disease would be to shoot instantly every person who comes down with it.

You see, some things I can teach you. Some you learn from books. But there are things that, well, you have to see and feel.

I've always been a serial monogamist.

To stumble twice against the same stone, is a proverbsial disgrace.

A clown I knew who was retiring from Ringling Brothers gave me his giant shoes, and somebody else made me a clown suit.

Communism is like prohibition, it is a good idea, but it won't work.

...What you fear will not go away; it will take you into yourself and bless you and keep you. That's the world, and we all live there.