I hate desks; they make me feel like a child doing homework.

If I was made of cake I'd eat myself before somebody else could.

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

There may be certain genres that men dominate, but fiction not so much. The question of prizes is tricky because there are so many prizes.

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.

With my first book, I was hired to write a draft of the script. I was so young and less confident. They put me through seven or eight drafts and it was just getting worse and worse, and then the film was never made.

You're meant to have an unhappy childhood to be a writer, but there's a lot to be said for a very happy one that just let's you get on with it.