I remember manners, that's when people are scared to make other persons mad.

I found motherhood a crash course in existentialism (what is my purpose in life, am I mistress or slave of my destiny, when the hell do I get some sleep?) and [the book] ROOM was the result.

The Collector [John Fowles book] does such a good job of capturing the mindset of a capturer, and also that's become a banal trope of every second crime novel: the weirdo, fetishistic watcher/stalker/kidnapper/kidnapper of women or children.

Identity politics are wearisome; you don't want to go on speaking for any one group as a writer.

Some writers can produce marvelous plots without planning it out, but I can't. In particular I need to know the structure of a novel: what's going to happen in each chapter and each scene.

Every parent has those moments where they look at their child and think, 'There's a demon in those eyes and no one can see it but me!

I must say, in the case of "Room," both the book and the film, I don't think being a lesbian author held me back at all.