Rahel’s toy wristwatch had the time painted on it. Ten to two. One of her ambitions was to own a watch on which she could change the time whenever she wanted to (which according to her was what Time was meant for in the first place).

Non-violence should be a tactic - not an ideology preached from the sidelines to victims of massive violence.

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.

Memory was that woman on the train. Insane in the way she sifted through dark things in a closet and emerged with the most unlikely ones - a fleeting look, a feeling. The smell of smoke. A windscreen wiper. A mother's marble eyes. Quite sane in the way she left huge tracts of darkness veiled. Unremembered.

Making bombs will only destroy us. It doesn't matter whether we use them or not. They will destroy us either way.

I've never been that person who thought that because I've written one novel, I should write another and another. It's only when there was another novel to write that I was going to write another.

It was a time when the unthinkable became the thinkable and the impossible really happened