“If the original of any of your characters would win a libel case against you, you have failed to create a real character.”

“To be shockingly original with your first novel, you don’t have to discover a new technique: Simply write about people as they are and not as the predominantly liberal and humanist literary establishment believes that they ought to be.”

“There isn't, unfortunately, any way of discovering whether you can write a publishable novel except by writing it.”

“Writing's not always a pleasure to me, but if I'm not writing every other pleasure loses its savour.”

“To win once you must have talent, but to win again you must have character.”

“I don't know where people got the idea that characters in books are supposed to be likable. Books are not in the business of creating merely likeable characters with whom you can have some simple identification with. Books are in the business of creating great stories that make you're brain go ahhbdgbdmerhbergurhbudgerbudbaaarr.”

“Worry more about your character than your reputation. Character is what you are, reputation merely what others think you are.”