Three of my novels and a good number of my short stories are told from the point of view of men. I was brought up in a house of women.

I suppose one should have an integrated personality, but I've never really seen the point.

All writing is a form of manipulation, of course, but you realize that a plain sentence can actually do so much.

It is important to find a publisher and equally important not to be noticed until your third or fourth book.

Between the ages of 8 and 12 it was difficult to know what my father was saying, and he moved very slowly, and then he died.

I never listen to music when I am writing. It would be impossible. I listen to Bach in the mornings, mostly choral music; also some Handel, mostly songs and arias; I like Schubert's and Beethoven's chamber music and Sibelius' symphonies; for opera, I listen to Mozart and in recent years Wagner.

Suffering is too strong a word, but writing is serious work. I pull the stuff up from me - it's not as if it's a pleasure.