I'm full of self-doubt. I doubt everything I do. Everything I do is a failure.

I'm a hopeless 19th-century romantic.

When I started writing, I was a great rationalist and believed I was absolutely in control. But the older one gets, the more confused, and for an artist I think that is quite a good thing: you allow in more of your instinctual self; your dreams, fantasies and memories. It's richer, in a way.

Doing what you do well is death. Your duty is to keep trying to do things that you don't do well, in the hope of learning.

For memory, we use our imagination. We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them.