We do not always like the people we love- we do not always have that choice.

One of the reasons I write is I like being surprised

It is very hard to trace the effect of words on a life.

We have lost the art of public tenderness, these small gestures of wiping and washing; we have forgotten how abjectly the body welcomes a formal touch.

For 10 or 11 years, I had my kids, I wrote four or five books, and I was working all the damn time.

I have a small room to write in. One wall is completely covered in books. And I face the window with the curtain closed to stop the light hitting the computer.

There's quite a big gap when it comes to that dual identity of mother and child, or even a pregnant woman, or a nursing woman. It kind of begs the question of that very strong Western idea of the individual self.