My worst nightmare is being stuck somewhere with nothing to read.

Stop a minute, right where you are. Relax your shoulders, shake your head and spine like a dog shaking off cold water. Tell that imperious voice in your head to be still.

I struggle with confidence, every time. I’m never completely sure I can write another book. Maybe my scope is too grand, my questions too hard, surely readers won’t want to follow me here. A novel is like a cathedral, it knocks you down to size when you enter into it.

Oh, that river of wishes, the slippery crocodile dream of it, how it might have carried my body down through all the glittering sand bars to the sea.

What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you know how to drive.

I don't look like who I am.

We agreed with him in principal - we were little scientists, born and bred. But children robbed of love will dwell on magic.