Julian Barnes

It's just the universe doing its stuff.

Don't insert morality or purpose into its unrolling and denouement.

Well, I did used to smoke, but only very lightly.

And I stopped some time ago.

And I do still drink, but it's not what causes it at all.

So it's a sort of morally neutral feeling.

It's just something that happens.

It's just, as a phrase I use more than once, it's just the universe doing its stuff, which gives you a certain sort of distance and vision about it.

No, I don't really feel grief for my own body.

I mean, it's just, it's sort of, it's pointless to feel that.

We are these creatures who come into this earth unbidden, not consulted.

And we live a certain amount of time, much longer than our ancestors, which is an upside.

But because we live longer, our body begins to break down.

The medical costs increase.

But I don't feel – I remember when I was told that I had some form of blood cancer.

I was sort of strangely detached.

I thought, oh, so that's how they tell you.

And also I felt interested in all the medical side of it.

I love talking to doctors and consultants and nurses.

They stick their needles into your arm and take off pints of blood.