The way to my heart is through Belgian milk chocolate.

...sentences swallowed and sung back and swallowed all over again. She was made entirely out of words.

You cannot predict literary success; the only way you can possibly aim for it is to do your thing and do it well.

Writers should be applauded for their ability to make things up.

In the publishing world, most editors are probably women. So I don't see the publishing world as a male-dominated one, especially within fiction.

So much as I enjoy big novels of epic sweep, I often find, say, if they follow several generations, by the third generation, I'm not caring about the people anymore.

Something we do know is that review coverage does go to male authors more than women authors. That's a fact. I think it's one of those examples of unconscious bias: If you hire a lot of male journalists, they're more likely to pick up the latest Ian McEwan novel than the latest A.S. Byatt novel.