But I never thought of who he wasn't, I never had to explain or defend him to myself, I didn't even care what we talked about.

... it struck me as so hard to believe I was really getting what I wanted; it was always easier to feel the lack of something than the thing itself.

I thought, if I write a book that is not a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, it's not going to mean that I will not get any criticism. I might as well write the book that I want to write.

... nothing broke my heart like the slow death of a shared joke that had once seemed genuinely funny.

In some ways I think it would be very dignified if I went away for twenty years and then wrote my fourth book.

Well, I think that if you sincerely try to imagine what life is like for another person - not in a mocking way, not in a satirical way, but in a sincere, compassionate way - I don't think that's exploitive.

I think in general, novels by men tend to be taken more seriously than novels by women.