I don't have technique because I never learnt any.

Children don't need much advice but they really do need to be listened to and not just with half an ear.

The flashbacks are parallel for me. You experience two storylines at the same time, and I'm not switching from one time to another.

I think books are like people, in the sense that they'll turn up in your life when you most need them. I firmly believe there are books whose greatness actually enables you to live, to do something. And sometimes, human beings need story and narrative more than they need nourishment and food.

And it's absolutely true that male sexual behaviour and female responses to male demands change a lot when they start communicating - and the levels of the communication that I've seen on the ground in very, very poor areas are so high and I think why don't we have that here?

I firmly believe there are books whose greatness actually enable you to live.

I was brought up by very witty people who were dealing with quite difficult things: disease and death... I was brought up by people who tended to giggle at funerals.