There's what people say, and there's what people mean, and I like to explore the difference between the two.

Horror in your country is something you take a dose of to remind yourself that you are not suffering from it.

your culture has become sophisticated, like a computer, or a drug that you take for a headache. You can use it, but you cannot explain how it works. Certainly not to girls who stack up their firewood against the side of the house.

Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means, this storyteller is alive

When I reached Fort Binjemma, for example, where my grandfather was stationed for a while, the whole Victorian fort was decaying. Barbed wire surrounded it, spray paint on the ancient walls claimed it as private property, and the moat where my grandfather and his men had grown crops - in desperation as the siege's hunger bit - was completely overgrown with bushes and trees.

I think that the relationship between two top-level athletes who are rivals is one of the most fascinating human relationships to explore. It's always one atom away from being a tragedy.

I'm always determined that as a novelist I'm going to go out there and research my characters very thoroughly before I start writing.