I do not think we remember our family in any real sense. We live in them instead

Cats, I always think, only jump into your lap to check if you are cold enough, yet, to eat.

You write a book and you finish the book. That's your job done, right? You win the Booker and you have a whole new job. You have to be the thing, right? So instead of writing the story, you somehow are the story. And that I found that sort of terrible.

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

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.

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.

Nothing had happened yet in my life except the need to get out of it.