I believe in fiction and the power of stories because that way we speak in tongues. We are not silenced. All of us, when in deep trauma, find we hesitate, we stammer; there are long pauses in our speech. The thing is stuck. We get our language back through the language of others. We can turn to the poem. We can open the book. Somebody has been there for us and deep-dived the words.

When we say we can pull resources away from libraries, from culture, from those parts of the education system that are not about utility, what we are really saying is that the life of the mind is unnecessary.

Everything in writing begins with language. Language begins with listening.

Not much touches us, but we long to be touched. We lie awake at night willing the darkness to part and show us a vision.

I keep telling this story - different people, different places, different times - but always you, always me, always this story, because a story is a tight rope between two worlds.

What a strange world this is when you can have as much sex as you like but love is taboo.

Ordinary professionalism and 20 years' experience can accomplish a lot, but it can't access the hidden places.