My parents were very supportive and always encouraged us. My father was a gentle, nice man. My mother was quite a colourful character and a keen reader who encouraged me to write.

This is another thing which I really like investigating in my novels: what is it that makes an intimate society, that makes a society in which moral concern for others will be possible? Part of that I think are manners and ritual. We tried to get rid of manners, we tried to abolish manners in the '60s. Manners were very, very old-fashioned and un-cool. And of course we didn't realise that manners are the building blocks of proper moral relationships between people.

I've always had a creative urge and I get immense satisfaction from creating something because it feels like I'm making sense of the world and imposing order on it.

There are old mycologists and there are bold mycologists, but there are no old, bold mycologists.

Any author of fiction will tell you that characters don't need to be told what to do.

It's through the small things that we develop our moral imagination, so that we can understand the sufferings of others.

At night we are all strangers, even to ourselves.