When I began to read as an adult, I read almost exclusively novelists of a generation back. I did the Russians, then I started getting more up to date. When you become published and become a reviewer, piles of books come along and you are pushed by fashion and what you are commissioned to do.

In my 20s I was in constant pain from undiagnosed endometriosis. With no prospect of a cure, I decided I needed a career - writing - that could accommodate being ill.

[Margaret Thatcher] aroused such strong loathing in so many people. That's the fact that interests me.

You don't get on by being original. You don't get on by being bright. You don't get on by being strong. You get on by being a subtle crook.

Fear of commitment lies behind the fear of writing.

Fortitude. ... It means fixity of purpose. It means endurance. It means having the strength to live with what constrains you.

I think if the monarchy were removed tomorrow, it wouldn't have a huge effect on the national mind-set.