I really wanted to write an adventure story, a murder-mystery that was set during the gold-rush years in New Zealand.

Never underestimate how extraordinarily difficult it is to understand a situation from another person's point of view.

I think the adverb is a much-maligned part of speech. Its always accused of being oppressive, even tyrannical, when in fact its so supple and sly.

I see disappointment as something small and aggregate rather than something unified or great. With a little effort, every failure can be turned into something good.

She is a loner, too bright for the slutty girls and too savage for the bright girls, haunting the edges and corners of the school like a sullen disillusioned ghost

I have observed that male writers tend to get asked what they think and women what they feel," she says. "In my experience, and that of a lot of other women writers, all of the questions coming at them from interviewers tend to be about how lucky they are to be where they are – about luck and identity and how the idea struck them. The interviews much more seldom engage with the woman as a serious thinker, a philosopher, as a person with preoccupations that are going to sustain them for their lifetime.

I often feel intellectually frustrated when I'm in a position where I'm not moving forward; when I'm not enquiring about something.