If you can just actually let the character be for a bit, then you get the right sense.

The only way to write a book, I’m fond of telling people, is to actually write a book. That’s how you write a book.

I think young children in the Western middle classes are objects of incredible anxiety.

We do not always like the people we love- we do not always have that choice.

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.

Here we go again. Always a few drinks, but sometimes even sober, we play the unhappiness game; endlessly round and round. Ding dong. Tighter and tighter. On and on. Push me pull you. Come here and i'll tell you how much i hate you. Hang on a minute while i leave you. All the while we know we are missing the point, whatever the point used to be.

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.