If To Live Is To Progress, If

When People Leave, They Always Seem To Scoop Themselves Out Of You.

I Think That The Cold War Was An Exceptional And Unnecessary Piece Of Cruelty.

My Characters Never Die Screaming In Rage. They Attempt To Pull Themselves Back Together And Go On. And That's Basically A Conservative View Of Life.

I Have Reared, Or Helped To Rear, Five Children And The Scariest Bit, Bar None, Is The Learning To Drive Part. It Has Filled Me With Anxiety Not Only About The Children, But Also About My Former Self And My Friends.

I Wrote The Dickens Book Because I Loved Dickens, Not Because I Felt A Kinship With Him, But After Writing The Book It Seemed To Me That There Was At Least One Similarity Between Us And That Was That Dickens Loved To Write And Wrote With The Ease And Conviction Of Breathing. Me, Too.