Each book, intuitively sensed and, in the case of fiction, intuitively worked out, stands on what has gone before, and grows out of it. I feel that at any stage of my literary career it could have been said that the last book contained all the others.

Africa is not a fun place, you know. A fun place is somewhere that lifts the spirits, that cossets the senses. I don't think that can be said of the Africa I traveled in.

I grew up in a small place and left it when I was quite young and entered the bigger world.

Home is, I suppose just a child's idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house. A place to feel safe.