As A Londoner I Was Able To

There Are Certain People Who Seem Doomed To Buy Certain Houses. The House Expects Them. It Waits For Them.

There Is A Word In Old English Which Belongs Wholly To That Civilization - "dustsceawung," Meaning Contemplation Of Dust. It Is A True Image Of The Anglo-saxon Mind, Or At Least An Echo Of That Consciousness Which Considered Transcience And Loss To Be Part Of The Human Estate; It Was A World In Which Life Was Uncertain And The Principal Diety Was Fate Or Destiny Or "wyrd."

It's Only Recently That We've Discovered That The Artist's Inner Self Is Somehow More Important Than The Public World. I'm Happier To Create Exterior Pieces For The World Rather Than To Express Something I Deeply Feel Or Wish To Say.

Why Should A Novelist Not Also Be A Historian? To Force Unnatural Divisions Within The English Language Is To Work Against Its Capacious And Accommodating Nature. To Expect A Writer To Produce Only Novels, Or Only Histories, Is Equivalent To Demanding From A Composer That He Or She Write Only String Quartets Or Piano Sonatas.

I Think Biography Can Be More Personal Than Fiction, And Certainly Can Be More Expressive.