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'The Odyssey' is the great tale, and I was really taken by 'The Iliad,' so I dig into those things, and when I was a kid I didn't. You've gotta have a certain level of understanding yourself before that stuff really starts to resonate.

I loved the myths of ancient Greece and Egypt.

I read The Odyssey all the time. I always get something out of it.

It is good to learn from the ancients. I'm a bit of an ancient myself. They had a lot of time to think about architecture and landscape.

I spent most of the '60s, when I was starting to try to write novels, living and working in Greece and Turkey. These are countries where the ancient past is interfused with the daily present, and I remember being struck with wonder at the constant sense of continuity and connection, the reminders that lie in wait for you at every turn.

We read Greek and Norse mythology until it came out of our ears. And the Bible.

Few of the great works of ancient Greek literature are easy reading.

Anything based on ancient texts is difficult for a modern reader to get their head around.

I do not read the ancient languages, but I am beginning to study Greek.

The Odyssey is, indeed, one of the greatest of all stories, it is the original romance of the West; but the Iliad, though a magnificent poem, is not much of a story.