I'm really aware that in fiction, women are pretty much equal. There's a lot of very successful women novelists. Not so much [for women writers working] in film.

The great thing about a short story is that it doesn't have to trawl through someone's whole life; it can come in glancingly from the side.

Stories are a different kind of true.

There may be certain genres that men dominate, but fiction not so much. The question of prizes is tricky because there are so many prizes.

She leaped into space, high, higher than she'd ever been in her life. She came down with a clean snap, and the crowd scattered like birds from the swing of her feet.

I think it would be a shame for any writer to let their publishers in any way corral them into a single genre.

Seriously, I think what all the puzzling over parenthood I had to do to write [a novel] ROOM taught me is that children can thrive in a remarkable range of situations.