And, in fact, this is the tale that I would love to write: history is such a romantic place, with its jarveys and urchins and side-buttoned boots. If it would just stay still, I think, and settle down. If it would just stop sliding around in my head.

I'm quite interested in the absolute roots of narrative, why we tell stories at all: where the monsters come from.

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

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

I am interested in levels of brain discourse. How articulate are the voices in your head? You know, there's a different voice for the phone, and a different voice if you're talking in bed. When you're starting off with a narrator, it's interesting to think, where is their voice coming from, what part of their brain?

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

If your life just falls apart early on, you can put it together again. Its the people who are always on the brink of crisis who dont hit bottom who are in trouble.