I am a great believer in people taking control of their own lives.

I don't have a boss. Well, I have a boss: the public. If the public doesn't buy my books, I would be out of a job.

I have a robust sense of humour which helps me deal with problems.

I left school at 16 and skipped university to work, initially as a waiter. I think I missed out on what would have been great years.

I was lucky enough to spend some of my school days in Barbados, where my father was working, and this gave me a taste for hot weather.

It's very nice to meet the people who read my books.

No matter what their background, the southern French are fascinated by food.

Nowadays, if you have a journey, albeit a simple one, you consider yourself lucky if nothing happens.

One must never forget that life is unfair. But sometimes, with a bit of luck, this works in your favour.

Sundays in France have a different atmosphere to other days, with fewer phone calls, no postman, no delivery men and no one banging on the door.

There are plenty of miserable millionaires all over the place.

Very little happens in my books.

You don't like it when a French housewife gets mad at you. If she gets steam behind her, she is an unstoppable creature.

I have a very set routine. I work six days a week, but only half days. I work from 9 in the morning till 1 in the afternoon, without any interruptions, a fair slug.

I would dearly love to resist the temptation, if you can call it that, to worry. It's boring, it's anti-social, it's unproductive and it's depressing.

In the south of France the phones cut in and out, the electricity isn't particularly reliable. I think many people would get very irritated with that life.

The funny thing in France is that writers are not allowed to retire, because the French government say you are still earning money from books you wrote 20 years ago.

The great thing about having money is that you can actually just get on with your life and not have to think about paying the bills or crouch over 'The Wall Street Journal' or the 'Financial Times' and look at the stock figures and things like that. That bores me rigid.

There is nothing I like better at the end of a hot summer's day than taking a short walk around the garden. You can smell the heat coming up from the earth to meet the cooler night air.

When I was very young in London, I had a bank account, which didn't have a great deal in it. I should think at least every three months the bank manager would call me up and threaten to strangle me because I had no money, and I was writing checks.