You can't throw away years of your life because it makes a funny anecdote.

This might sound really foolish, but when I came to Edinburgh in 1988 I had spent nearly all my life living south of Bristol, and I was just amazed that a city like Edinburgh was actually in the British isles.

I love him, she thought. I'm just not in love with him and also I don't love him. I've tried, I've strained to love him but I can't. I am building a life with a man I don't love, and I don't know what to do about it.

Find the thing you love, and do it with all your heart, to the absolute best of your ability, no matter what people say.

I really was a terrible actor. I did it for years in my twenties because it was like being at university again.

I still find it absurdly difficult to concentrate on a novel if there's a phone or computer to hand; I have taken to locking them outside the room like noisy pets.

As a matter of fact, I think there are more things important in life than "relationships.