I concentrate on the lives of individuals whom the reader comes to know and feel with intimately.

To try to expunge an individual's history is a terrible violation.

The human longing for story is so powerful, so primitive, that it seems like something not learned, but locked into our genes.

Those who try to obliterate the past are injuring the present.

When you are young you don't always realise how full of doubts everybody is.

I didn't choose Russia but Russia chose me. I had been fascinated from an early age by the culture, the language, the literature and the history to the place.

We are creatures of story.