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The nicest part of the prize, perhaps, is the effect on my friends and family. Each of them feels proud and happy to have the relationship with me that they do. In a way, it's as though they received an award too, and I like that very much.

You've got to keep your eye on the prize and do what you love to do.

There's something very strange about associating me with that prize. I had hoped for it in a more directed way as a journalist. Somehow as a journalist you know there are Pulitzers out there and you can work hard and get one. To win it for Fiction seems unbelievable.

Lots of people have objections to prizes of all types, and it would be extraordinary if everybody agreed on anything that's worthwhile - they never do.

Be it jewel or toy, not the prize gives the joy, but the striving to win the prize.

The worth of a prize depends on the people who have received it before you.

I've won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one. I'm delighted to win them all, the whole lot.

Awards are not something that I measure my work by. I've been so fortunate and I've gotten to do such terrific things that it seems petty to look back and say, 'Oh, I should have gotten that prize.' I don't look at it that way.

I'm not a great believer in awards-of course the fact that I've never won one has nothing to do with it at all!