But I don't think people take bad advice. They've got intuition too, you know. In fact I'd be surprised if they take any advice at all.

I spend about a year between novels

No couple buying wedding rings wants to be reminded that someday one of them will have to accept the other one's ring from a nurse or an undertaker.

People who hadn't suffered a loss yet struck me as not quite grown up.

I think it must be very hard to be one of the new young writers who are urged to put themselves forward when it may be the last thing on earth they'd be good at

I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get

I can never tell ahead of time which book will give me trouble - some balk every step of the way, others seem to write themselves - but certainly the mechanics of writing, finding the time and the psychic space, are easier now that my children are grown.