It'll Be Your Own Torture," He Said,

Art Is Rare And Sacred And Hard Work, And There Ought To Be A Wall Of Fire Around It.

The Meal Was Pretentious - A Kind Of Beetroot Soup With Greasy Croutons; Pork Underdone With Loud Vulgar Cabbage, Potato Croquettes, Tinned Peas In Tiny Jam-tart Cases, Watery Gooseberry Sauce; Trifle Made With A Resinous Wine, So Jammy That All My Teeth Lit Up At Once.

The Ideal Reader Of My Novels Is A Lapsed Catholic And Failed Musician, Short-sighted, Colour-blind, Auditorily Biased, Who Has Read The Books That I Have Read.

The Book I Am Best Known For, Or Only Known For, Is A Novel I Am Prepared To Repudiate: Written A Quarter Of A Century Ago, A Jeu D'esprit Knocked Off For Money In Three Weeks, It Became Known As The Raw Material For A Film Which Seemed To Glorify Sex And Violence. The Film Made It Easy For Readers Of The Book To Misunderstand What It Was About, And The Misunderstanding Will Pursue Me Till I Die. I Should Not Have Written The Book Because Of This Danger Of Misinterpretation.

The State Is Never So Efficient As When It Wants Money.