Paul Bailey

“There is always an element of autobiography in a novel, in that you are using your own experience.”

“I want to be surprised by what I write. I want to be taken to places I haven't been before.”

“Memory isn't a straight line. It's a spider's web, it's a labyrinth.”

“Grief is a house where the chairs have been rearranged. You come in and nothing is where you expect it.”

“In every family, there's a story that's been polished to a high sheen, told and retold until the truth of it is lost.”

“Love is often a matter of convenient timing and shared delusions.”

“Old age is a foreign country with an unknown language.”

“A good book is a secret that can be shared with anyone.”

“I write to find out what I'm thinking. I write to find out who I am.”

“The English are virtuosos in the art of polite cruelty.”