To understand everything is to hate nothing.
Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers.
But then, I suppose, when with the benefit of hindsight one begins to search one's past for such 'turning points', one is apt to start seeing them everywhere.
I think of my pile of old paperbacks, their pages gone wobbly, like they'd once belonged to the sea.
Memory is quite central for me. Part of it is that I like the actual texture of writing through memory.
Typically in my novels the narrator tells a story by remembering, and the memories are colored by this and colored by that. So the whole universe of the novel tends to be framed by the narrator's memories and thoughts.
Perhaps one day, all these conflicts will end, and it won't be because of great statesmen or churches or organisations like this one. It'll be because people have changed. They'll be like you, Puffin. More a mixture. So why not become a mongrel? It's healthy.
Good posture and an attitude let you get away with anything.
If I'm not touring I'd just be at home, just driving - I'm kind of at a loss for how that stuff works.
I believe one has to escape oneself to discover oneself.
To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfections.