Early in 1967 Highsmith’s agent told her why her books did not sell in paperback in America. It was, said Patricia Schartle Myrer, because they were ‘too subtle’, combined with the fact that none of her characters were likeable. ‘Perhaps it is because I don’t like anyone,’ Highsmith replied. ‘My last books may be about animals’.

The woman who defined herself through her writing had become an empty page.

Why couldn’t she enjoy the present moment, she asked herself, without destroying it through overanalysis? What did she want? Everything.

Writing, she said was not only her favorite hobby, it was also a way in which she could escape into another world – the world of fantasy.

Janet Salter remembers that “if we were ever in a situation where we didn’t want people to know we were referring to ourselves, we would use biblical names – I would call myself Ruth, and Sylvia liked to use Esther,” the Jewish queen who saved her people from annihilation and the name she would give to the heroine of The Bell Jar.10.

This is a great feeling. We've been climbing that mountain. Tonight, we made it to the top.

I can see it developing, especially with so much riding.

He's ridiculous right now. He's the best player in college basketball right now. All you can do is make him work hard for the baskets he gets - because he's going to get them.

He's the best player in the country. He's the best player I've had to defend. He's one of those guys you know where he's going to be, but you cant stop him, he's that good.

If your wife and child have been murdered and you don't go to the funeral, then there's more to this story, and I think from that moment on both here, the sort of coverage you were seeing, and the sort of coverage you were seeing in England, were simultaneously changing around.