“Read. As much as you can. As deeply and widely and nourishingly and ­irritatingly as you can. And the good things will make you remember them, so you won’t need to take notes.”

Nothing makes you feel more stupid than finding out you were wrong when you thought you were loved.

Surgery is just stabbing in a courteous environment

Remember you love writing. It wouldn’t be worth it if you didn’t. If the love fades, do what you need to and get it back.

Have more humility. Remember you don’t know the limits of your own abilities. Successful or not, if you keep pushing beyond yourself, you will enrich your own life – and maybe even please a few strangers.

We are not all connected. We are bags of skin. We are all separate bags of thinking skin.

Write. No amount of self-inflicted misery, altered states, black pullovers or being publicly obnoxious will ever add up to your being a writer. Writers write. On you go.

But that is the only thing that slows me down is the system. No one, two or three was big enough to slow me down, only the system. It was the system that slowed me down to make my numbers fall. Not because I am older.

The important thing was to love rather than to be loved.

a writer doesn’t only need the time when he’s actually writing – he or she has got to have time to think and time just to let things work out. Nothing is worse for this than society. Nothing is worse for this than the abrasive, if enjoyable, effect of other people.

It’s no good trying to keep up old friendships. It’s painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.

My own laugh is the real thing and I’ve had it all my life.

A person who acquires English has access to all the things that that language makes possible.

I don’t think ‘bleak’ is a bad thing.

I think baking is an incredible thing; cooking in general is an incredible thing.