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.

When you find yourself alone, or in a transition, you dream more. These are also the times when you read books.

I work at the sentences. Many of the things people find distinctive about my writing, I think of as natural.

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.

Only bad writers think that their work is really good.

Write whatever way you like. Fiction is made of words on a page; reality is made of something else. It doesn't matter how "real" your story is, or how "made up": what matters is its necessity.

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.