Winning doesn't mean my book is better than anyone else's. It means I'm very fortunate. And I should be very, very aware of that. And grateful.

I turned down all the requests for the rights to the books, for years, mostly because they wanted the rights to the characters, and to turn it into a TV series. This would have allowed them to do anything they wanted with the characters, and that just wasn't an option for me.

A journalist also needs to be disciplined, and so do I. I am, essentially, lazy. Without discipline I'd be just a mass of gummy bears on the sofa instead of on book tour with my eighth novel.

I've seen enough successful writers who no longer seem to care when they are recognized with an award, and I think that's just tragic.

I have no regrets about doing 'Strictly.' This is the biggest achievement of my life.

I'm not doing my work for constant success.

In Britain, by contrast, we still think that class plays a part in determining a person's life chances, so we're less inclined to celebrate success and less inclined to condemn failure. The upshot is that it's much easier to be a failure in Britain than it is in America.

Success, in a generally accepted sense of the term, means the opportunity to experience and to realize to the maximum the forces that are within us.