Before I write a novel, images float around in my head that work like icons - they are meaningless in themselves, but serve as reminders.

Write every day, just to keep in the habit, and remember that whatever you have written is neither as good nor as bad as you think it is. Just keep going, and tell yourself that you will fix it later.

A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing.

Hungry ears are sharp ones.

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

I have reared, or helped to rear, five children and the scariest bit, bar none, is the learning to drive part. It has filled me with anxiety not only about the children, but also about my former self and my friends.

Not every novel that wants to be a tragedy gets to be one.