Writing is a solitary occupation. Family friends and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone uninterrupted and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking.

As a child I wanted only two things - to be left alone to read my library books and to get away from my provincial hometown and go to London to be a writer. And I always knew that when I got there I wanted to make loads of money.

Writers may be disreputable incorrigible early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone.

The writer is all alone.

Volume depends precisely on the writer's having been able to sit in a room every day year after year alone.

The daily act of writing remains as demanding and maddening as it was before and the pleasure you get from writing - rare but profound - remains at the true heart of the enterprise. On their best days writers all over the world are winning Pulitzers all alone in their studios with no one watching.

I don't think I ever got the hang of the writers' room. I love collaborating with people but I really do my best work alone and I think I would want to - if I did something again I think I'd want to take total ownership the way Aaron Sorkin or David Kelley does.

And I find - I'm 63 and my capacity to be by myself and just spend time by myself hasn't diminished any. That's the necessary part of being a writer you better like being alone.

I alone of English writers have consciously set myself to make music out of what I may call the sound of sense.

I vividly remember being 14. That was the age when I started to get happy: I started being a writer and stopped being a loser.

Writers obviously have to bear witness to the harsh face of the age.

I think all writers of my age who are brought up on films probably by the age of 16 have seen many more films than they have read classics of literature. We can't help but be influenced by film. Film has got some great tricks that it's taught writers.

The greatest writers of this age... are aware of the mystery of our existence.

Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.