I was never really good in school.
There was a windstorm in L.A., and the morning after there was no smog, and I could see the mountains. And I was like... 'There's mountains? Snowcap mountains?' That's insane; I've been there for thirteen years, and I've never seen that view before, seeing the mountains in the distance.
There are some things I wish I never knew, but I am grateful for things that I have learned, too.
A busybody's work is never done.
The scribbler's life is never done.
Fear of death has never played a large part in my consciousness - perhaps unimaginative of me.
The Royal Family are not like you and me. They live in houses so big that you can walk round all day and never need to meet your spouse. The Queen and Prince Philip have never shared a bedroom in their lives. They don't even have breakfast together.
It would no doubt be very sentimental to argue - but I would argue it nevertheless - that the peculiar combination of joy and sadness in bell music - both of clock chimes, and of change-ringing - is very typical of England. It is of a piece with the irony in which English people habitually address one another.
When I think about atheist friends, including my father, they seem to me like people who have no ear for music, or who have never been in love.
Iris Murdoch did influence my early novels very much, and influence is never entirely good.
