Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently.

Writing is both bomb and bomb disposal-a necessary shattering of cliche and assumption, and a powerful defusing of the soul-destroying messages of modern life (that nothing matters, nothing changes, money is everything, etc). Writing is a state of being as well as an act of doing.

the power of a text is not time-bound. The words go on doing their work.

Art is a foreign city, and we deceive ourselves when we think it familiar. We have to recognize that the language of art, all art, is not our mother tongue.

Part broken - part whole, you begin again. ( from 'Why books seem shockproof against change.' THE TIMES: BOOKS)

unhappy families are conspiracies of silence. The one who breaks the silence is never forgiven.

Quoting her mother: The trouble with a book is you never know what's in it until it's too late!