I love the characters not knowing everything and the reader knowing more than them. There's more mischief in that and more room for seriousness, too.

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.

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

I've heard people, usually writers, say that no one wrote a great book after winning the Booker, but I honestly did not feel any big pressure. The Gathering did hang over me in that it was darker than I thought at the time.

To be able to have the space to sit down and write has always been my central policy.

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.

I write anywhere - when I have an idea it’s hard not to write. I used to be kind of precious about where I wrote. Everything had to be quiet and I couldn’t be disturbed, it really filled my day.