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Every time I see a film about Joan of Arc I'm convinced she'll get away with it. It's the only way to get through life.

I never plot out my novels in terms of the tone of the book. Hopefully, once a story is begun it reveals itself.

Only towards the end of this process are any of the chapters in fully readable condition, a state of affairs that used to alarm my wife. But Joan's got used to it.

I always wanted to play Joan of Arc. I've always wanted to do that. Now I'm thinking, 'Maybe there's a story in Joan of Arc's mother!' If I don't hurry up, her grandmother!

I really hate those books where the murderer turns out to be somebody you never heard of who pops up in the last chapter.

Every book for me is a chapter in the long book which will finally be closed on the day of my death.

I always favor the hero and heroine from whichever book I've completed most recently. Yes, I'm faithless and fickle!

I would hope that people didn't think I was anything like Joan! It's very hard for me because Joan says such cruel things all the time. It sort of makes me cringe every time I read them because I think, 'Who could be so horrible?' To be able to deliver those lines and do them with a coolness, yet still make her likable, is a bit of a challenge.