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

I think writers worry that you might not exist in some strange way if you're not writing.

I am interested in silences

Story is about pulling the reader in and a plot is a more externalized mechanism of revelation. A plot is more antic, more performative, and less intimate. When you're telling a story you're telling it into someone's ear.

I do not believe in evil- I believe that we are human and fallible, that we things and spoil them in an ordinary way.

I think you know everything at eight. But is is hidden from you, sealed up, in a way you have to cut yourself open to find.

There's quite a big gap when it comes to that dual identity of mother and child, or even a pregnant woman, or a nursing woman. It kind of begs the question of that very strong Western idea of the individual self.