People are still being put into geriatric wards when they don't need it. They need treatment, not just being put into bed and fed.

I get up just before six and come downstairs, put food out for the cats, and open the cat flap. Then I work out for 35 or 40 minutes - I have a very large bathroom with an elliptical cross-trainer and a bicycle.

People who have had a stroke and are recovering from it love being read to... especially by someone who is a good reader - it does help them to get better.

The more you pander to what is, presumably, the taste of young people, the more you corrupt.

Nobody will go on being remembered for a very long time, unless you're Shakespeare or Milton. I have no hope of being remembered at all.

I don't make any notes, but I do know where to find things. Suppose I need to know where Wexford first talked about his love of the countryside or where he quotes Larkin or what was the beginning of his hatred of racism or where he first encountered domestic violence; I would be able to find it straight away.