I acquired a hunger for fairy tales in the dark days of blackout and blitz in the second world war.

It's a terrible poison, writing.

I grew up with that completely fictive idea of motherhood, where the mother never strayed from the kitchen. All the women in my books are very afraid that if they do anything with their minds they won't be complete women. I don't think my daughters' generation has that feeling.

Lists are a form of power.

An odd phrase, "by heart," he would add, as though poems were stored in the bloodstream.

Narrative is one of the best intoxicants or tranquilisers.

There is a certain aesthetic pleasure in trying to imagine the unimaginable and failing, if you are a reader.