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.

No woman that I know is capable of leaving her child down for thirty seconds. She can't walk away without making sure that everything is absolutely as secure and safe for her child as can be.

I think it’s very important to write a demythologized woman character. My characters are flawed. They are no better than they should be.

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

I do not believe in evil- I believe that we are human and fallible, that we things and spoil them in an ordinary way.

People do not change, they are merely revealed.

And what amazes me as I hit the motorway is not the fact that everyone loses someone, but that everyone loves someone. It seems like such a massive waste of energy -- and we all do it, all the people beetling along between the white lines, merging, converging, overtaking. We each love someone, even though they will die. And we keep loving them, even when they are not there to love any more. And there is no logic or use to any of this, that I can see.