When I'm working, I'm not so much disciplined as obsessive. I have this feeling that I need to clear everything away and get this down.

There are men who would do anything, asleep, and I'm not sure what stops them when they wake. I do not know how they draw the line.

People whose lives are upside down often read fiction. When you're not sure where you'll end up or how you are going to be, and you're looking for some way forward, fiction is a great friend.

Try to be accurate about stuff.

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.

A novel is written not to be judged, but experienced.

My kids are supposed to live till they are one hundred. You don't have to have a perfect house or a perfect relationship with your child or a perfect child, and you yourself do not have to be perfect.