I don't want a tombstone. You could carve on it 'She never actually wanted a tombstone.'

I'm blessed in my good friends, and some of them happen to be writers, though that's almost never what our friendships are about. And every writer I've ever read, living or dead, has in one way or another helped and inspired. I have a feeling it's important not to mix the two up.

A good argument, like a good dialogue, is always a proof of life, but I'd much rather go and read a book.

The proper word for me," Robin Goodman says, "is me.

Art makes nothing happen in a way that makes something happen.

There are things that can't be said, because it's hard to have to know them.

A game one of my sisters will play with me in my first year of being alive is called Good Baby, Bad Baby. This consists of being told I am a good baby until I smile and laugh, then being told I am a bad baby until I burst into tears. This training will stand me in good stead all through my life.