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

I'm not very interested in myself. I do have a deep moral belief that you should always look out at other things and not be self-centred.

The more research you do, the more at ease you are in the world you're writing about. It doesn't encumber you, it makes you free.

…my Solitude is my Treasure, the best thing I have.

Coherence and closure are deep human desires that are presently unfashionable. But they are always both frightening and enchantingly desirable. "Falling in love," characteristically, combs the appearances of the word, and of the particular lover's history, out of a random tangle and into a coherent plot.

Things are not what they seem.

I don't understand why, in my work, writing is always so dangerous. It's very destructive. People who write books are destroyers.