The future rose up ahead of her, a succession of empty days, each more daunting and unknowable than the one before her.

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

As new dawns go, this one is depressingly like the old dawn.

I work three days at home, and two days in the British Library or the London Library, just to get out of the house and hide from the children.

No matter how predictable, banal and listless the rest of my life might be, you can guarantee that there'll always be something interesting going on with my skin.

I suppose the important thing is to make some sort of difference.

Sometimes I wish that I hadn't learned how to crochet," I say, and Alice laughs. Obviously she thinks I'm joking, which is maybe for the best.