I was at the tail end of the family. The next brother along was already seven years older than me. I remember growing up by myself, playing games by myself.

To be known so well by someone is an unimaginable gift. But to be imagined so well by someone is even better.

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

Books mean all possibilities. They mean moving out of yourself, losing yourself, dying of thirst and living to your full. They mean everything.

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.

The head has its confines. The head’s got those all right, and the heart. The heart has its reasons.

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.