I think you can get a sort of intensity and an edginess offering nine stories in a book. Competing versions of things.

Writing tends to be very deliberate. A novelist could probably run a military campaign with some success. They could certainly run a country.

All writing is a form of manipulation, of course, but you realize that a plain sentence can actually do so much.

I have to write a first draft with a fountain pen before I type it up as a second.

Life has a funny way of becoming ordinary as soon as it can.

Suffering is too strong a word, but writing is serious work. I pull the stuff up from me - it's not as if it's a pleasure.

I wrote every day between the ages of 12 and 20 when I stopped because I went to Barcelona, where life was too exciting to write.

I suppose one should have an integrated personality, but I've never really seen the point.

If you have to read to cheer yourself up, read biographies of writers who went insane.

Three of my novels and a good number of my short stories are told from the point of view of men. I was brought up in a house of women.

I live in words. I like looking at things, but I don't have a strong visual imagination.

Everyone agrees the celibacy rule is just a Church law dating from the 11th century, not a divine command.

Only when you connect with yourself do you interact with the beyond.

Shoes are strange things. If you take your shoes off in a situation in which you're vulnerable, you'll feel 10 times more vulnerable.

My mantra is if you raise money, don't waste it.

I think most video game movies have a problem, because they do try and have one foot in one door and another foot in a completely door.

You could say I'm on the troubleshooting squad." "Troubleshooting?" He put a hand on the back of his waistband. "I see trouble and I shoot it.

Until the Chinese decide to compete fairly it will be up to us to do what we can to further protect our manufacturing base, and ensure we keep the good paying jobs we already have.

Forgiveness is commendable, but apply not ointment to the wound of an oppressor.

The worst of all fears is the fear of living