I was always determined that one way or another I would force a book on the world, even if I had to resort to writing one about a tabby cat who solves mysteries.

You couldn’t truly love anything if you didn’t hate at least something. Indeed, perhaps you couldn’t truly love anything if you didn’t hate almost everything.

I hate going back over what I've written. It makes me feel physically sick.

If I want to feel as if I'm being sucked down a fathomless gloomy tunnel for hours and hours then I have a complete set of Schopenhauer at home.

I don't have a day job, so I read any time of day.

I'm reasonably good at talking onstage, but actually holding court in a pub is all to do with power dynamics which I don't think has anything to do with fiction.

There's never a bad time to put earplugs in. They're the kind of thing you can reject as a bit lame, but somebody told me to do start wearing earplugs and it turned out to be great advice.

Plot is tremendously important to me: I can't stand books where nothing happens, and I can't imagine ever writing a novel without at least one murder.

The simile has to match the tone of its surroundings and has to be like a little joke. Writing a simile that isn't funny on some level is quite hard.

I'm very finicky about when I'm in the right mood to write. So most days, I find some excuse not to do anything.

The reason I start a novel is because there's something that excites me and I want to explore it.

All those who love know exactly the limit they're prepared to go to. They know exactly what is required.

It's okay to be impatient. As long as you show your patience on the outside.

Wine is poetry in a bottle.

...You'd think the little part about them supposedly killing us would be the attention getter.

I listened to lots of other kinds of music, but punk is what allowed me to actually play music.

No stress, no fights. I'm leaving it all behind. No tears, no time to cry. Just making the most of life.

I welcome him like I welcome cold sores. He's from England, he's angry and he's got Mad Power Disease.

I’m really alive when I’m on stage.

Brands are the rock stars of commerce, and create many fans, both at home and abroad.

I'm very proud of myself on my, whatever the literacy is, I'm pretentious, totally pretentious. I like to say 'hmm', for example.