I think I wanted to write a book about the relationship between the victim and perpetrator in which the victim agrees to remain silent.

But I think the real tension lies in the relationship between what you might call the pursuer and his quarry whether it's the writer or the spy.

You have a strange relationship with calamity when you're a writer: you write about it as an artist you objectify and fetishize it. You render life into material and that's a creepy thing to do.

I like to write with people I have a relationship with otherwise it's kind of scary and you hold back because you don't want to pour your guts out to someone you never met.

I can see how a relationship with a writer would be an easy thing.

If one could be friendly with women what a pleasure - the relationship so secret and private compared with relations with men. Why not write about it truthfully?

What one writer can make in the solitude of one room is something no power can easily destroy.

The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar is the test of their power.

They say the test of literary power is whether a man can write an inscription. I say 'Can he name a kitten?'

It's the writers' job to make it positive. It's my job to make it real.

If someone's going to talk about me I'd want it to be positively. The way many write you'd think only bad things were interesting. If we don't think positive what's the use? It's a lot more fun you know.

Since I can barely write two books a year the best solution seems to be co-author projects. My goal isn't to get another writer to clone me... it's more to produce a book that shares my vision of positive fun entertainment.

The two things I was positive about in life were that I was going to be a teacher at a boarding school or an operative with the CIA posted abroad. I could write a book about all the things I was sure about.

I like to write sad songs. They're much easier to write and you get a lot more emotion into them. But people don't want to hear them as much. And radio definitely doesn't they want that positive uptempo thing.

As writers and readers as sinners and citizens our realism and our aesthetic sense make us wary of crediting the positive note.

But you cannot expect every writer to dwell on human suffering. I think my books do deal with grave issues. People who say they are too positive probably haven't read them.

We don't tend to write about disease in fiction - not just teen novels but all American novels - because it doesn't fit in with our idea of the heroic romantic epic. There is room only for sacrifice heroism war politics and family struggle.

If we tried to write about politics you'd realize that we're all a bunch of idiots.

Broadcasters or politicians or writers who think that they are respecting Struggle Street the battlers by dumbing things down into one-line sound bites are not respecting them they are treating them with contempt. It's our job above all in politics to tackle the big issues and to explain them.

I hate politics. I like to write about it but to get involved in it to try and make a lot of ignorant people do what you want them to do waste of time. Go and write a book. It's more important and it'll last longer.

I'm not the guy to ask about politics. I'm a gag writer.

And you don't want to always write about politics just for the sake of writing about politics.

I must not write a word to you about politics because you are a woman.

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.