I did a lot of stupid things. If it was a book, it would be a bloody good read.

It's a good read, ... I was determined not to do a how-to book in a pedantic way. There are a lot of lessons in there that could be of value to people.

I think it's a stupid way to read a book, ... to say that because something happens to one person the author is trying to suggest that all people are like this. The novel is the art of the particular. And I'm talking about a particular person whose development from innocence to guilt, if you like, is his own particular narrative arc. The point is to make that coherent - not to read the book as some kind of simple allegory, but to read it as a story about a person.

A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit.

Read Don Quixote; it is a very good book; I still read it frequently.

I didn't read anything in there that didn't say that he didn't do a good job, that he was praised by a lot of people he worked with,