I actually tried to think of the story [Room] in gender-neutral terms at first and said to myself, "OK, would this work if it were a man?" Well no, you can't make a man pregnant, so it's got to be a woman.

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.

A memoir is always the most authentic telling of a situation, but a novel gets to different places.

When I was a little kid I thought like a little kid, but now I'm five I know everything

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.

When I tell her what I’m thinking and she tells me what she’s thinking, our each ideas jumping into the other’s head, like coulouring blue crayon on top of yellow that makes green.

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