I'm One Of Those Unlucky People Who

The Plain Fact Is That She Never Really Liked Me, And Never Wanted Me. I Had Been A Mistake; And That, To Some Extent, Is What I Remain In My Own Eyes, To This Day. The Knowledge Never Goes, Can Never Be Undone. You Just Have To Find A Way To Live With It.

I Was Going To Say 'my Friend Stuart', But I Suppose He's Not A Friend Any More. I Seem To Have Lost A Number Of Friends In The Last Few Years. I Don't Mean That I've Fallen Out With Them, In Any Dramatic Way. We've Just Decided Not To Stay In Touch. And That's What It's Been: A Decision, A Conscious Decision, Because It's Not Difficult To Stay In Touch With People Nowadays, There Are So Many Different Ways Of Doing It. But As You Get Older, I Think That Some Friendships Start To Feel Increasingly Redundant. You Just Find Yourself Asking, "what's The Point?" And Then You Stop.

Objectivity Is Just Male Subjectivity.

The Biggest Markets For My Books Outside The Uk Are France And Italy, And Those Are The Two Countries Where I Also Have The Closest Personal Relationships With My Translators - I Don't Know Whether That's A Coincidence, Or If There's Something To Be Learned From It.

My Only Regret Is That I Signed Away The World Rights And In America They've Been Far And Away My Most Successful Books, But I Never Saw A Cent From Any Of It.