“The only mercy of children is that they grow up, as my son has but then, tragically, they beget more children. We do not learn life’s lessons.”

I’m fortunate that the books sell, but even more fortunate to live in Chatham, to be very happily married and to have, on the whole, a fairly clear conscience.

But when you have order, you don’t need Gods. When everything is well ordered and disciplined then nothing is unexpected.

The bards sing of love, they celebrate slaughter, they extol kings and flatter queens, but were I a poet I would write in praise of friendship.

You’ll call me damned Jew, a Christ murderer, a secret worshipper of pigs and a kidnapper of Christian children. How absurd! Who would want to kidnap children, Christian or otherwise? Vile things.

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if the first book had not sold… doesn’t bear thinking about, but I suppose we’d have made it work somehow.

We don’t build,’ I said to my son, ‘we just destroy.

You won’t regret the men you never killed, but you will regret the women you passed up.

What I mean by that is that the point of life, as I see it, is not to write books or scale mountains or sail oceans, but to achieve happiness, and preferably an unselfish happiness.

So far it’s 43 books in 25 years.

Wyrd bith ful araed (Fate is inexorable).

Research is a lifelong occupation so it’s hard to factor it in, but I reckon most books take 5 months from start to finish.

I’ll happily mentor anyone who wants mentoring, and most of that goes on by internet rather than face to face.

Of course some days are easier than others, but my worst day is better than being in most humdrum occupations.

Love is a dangerous thing. It comes in disguise to change our life… Lust is the deceiver. Lust wrenches our lives until nothing matters except the one we think we love, and under that deceptive spell we kill for them, give all for them, and then, when we have what we have wanted.

Looking back, of course, it was irresponsible, mad, forlorn, idiotic, but if you don’t take chances then you’ll never have a winning hand, and I’ve no regrets.

Then you start another book and suddenly the galley proofs of the last one come in and you have to wrench your attention away from what you’re writing and try to remember what you were thinking when you wrote the previous one.

There are in fact two things, science and opinion. The former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

Health and cheerfulness naturally beget each other.

It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge.

Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.

I think work begets work.

Gold begets in brethren hate; Gold in families debate; Gold does friendship separate; Gold does civil wars create.

If nature’s inspiration fails, indignation will beget the poem.

Fear of ridicule begets the worst cowardice.