She was lonely without Blunt, but she was lonelier at the idea that the world went on as though she had not loved him.

It really matters to writers to find and treasure readers, all the more when they're on the other side of the world.

It may be enough to study history in all its nuance and ambiguity for its own sake. But there is no country free of the need to find new ways of reading the past as an inspiring way of thinking about everything else, including the present.

Writer's block! It doesn't exist. You just long for ideas to go away so you have an idea of peace.

I live in words. I like looking at things, but I don't have a strong visual imagination.

I wrote every day between the ages of 12 and 20 when I stopped because I went to Barcelona, where life was too exciting to write.

I work very deliberately, with a plan. But sometimes I come to a point that I planned as the end and it needs softening. Ending a novel is almost like putting a child to sleep - it can't be done abruptly.