The old detective story that's got a really complicated motive doesn't apply to mine.

I don't feel that I wanted to spend my whole writing life - which is my life - writing detective stories.

I wouldn't be young again even if it were possible, but I am not going to pretend that growing old is all sweetness and light.

I'm a very rigorous person. I like to take exercise. People get mired in old age, they get bent and twisted, but I can stop that.

We, people, are so very, very complicated that no matter how well drawn a fictional character is, they can't get anywhere near as complex as a real person.

'The Chimney Sweeper's Boy' began differently from any previous book I'd written. It actually derives from a story a friend - the novel's dedicatee, Patrick Maher - told me.