He [Ma's Tooth] was part of her a minute ago but now he's not. Just a thing.

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.

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

I've been in a long and happy relationship for 22 years and it's never inspired me to write anything. It's too good - nothing to say. Problems, conflict, that's what makes for good stories.

Ma's still nodding. "You're the one who matters, though. Just you." I shake my head till it's wobbling because there's no just me.

I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened.

Nowadays, 'invisibility' was supposed to be the big problem, but the way I saw it was, all that mattered was to be visible to yourself.