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.

I was anticipating that some readers might misread [the book] ROOM itself as a hymn to homeschooling.

People don't always want to be with people. It gets tiring.

I always wince a little bit when I send me to each of my new books. I wince at submitting myself to my father's judgment. But, of course, he's such a fond father that he always writes back, saying it's the greatest thing ever written.

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.

I've certainly seen stats that if you have a woman director or a woman screenwriter, the number of female characters goes way up.

I was not exploiting any real individual's story in writing ROOM, of course I was aware that my novel, by commenting on such situations, would run the risk of falling into those traps of voyeurism, sensationalism and sentimentality.