Bernard Cornwell

At risk of sounding foully pompous I think that writers' groups are probably very useful at the beginning of a writing career.

I'll happily mentor anyone who wants mentoring, and most of that goes on by internet rather than face to face.

What I mean by that is that the point of life, as I see it, is not to write books or scale mountains or sail oceans, but to achieve happiness, and preferably an unselfish happiness.

I know I'm not the kind of person who's gonna wind up a walking jukebox, like many rock 'n' roll artists. They just play their hits and that's it. That doesn't appeal to me.

Most detective story readers are an educated audience and know there are only a certain number of plots. The interest lies in what the writer does with them.

Another thing that freaks me out is time. Time is like a book. You have a beginning, a middle and an end. It's just a cycle.