I never wanted children. If I'd been deeply in love with a man and he'd wanted children, it would have been difficult.

You play, you win, you play, you lose. You play. It’s the playing that’s irresistible. Dicing from one year to the next with the things you love, what you risk reveals what you value.

My characters are always on the outside; the spotlight's not on them. But they do get somewhere.

In my subconscious, my books were part of a single emotional journey.

Wherever love is, I want to be, I will follow it as surely as the land-locked salmon finds the sea.

Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights; the accumulations of a lifetime gather there

I know our feelings can be so unbearable that we employ ingenious strategies – unconscious strategies – to keep those feelings away. We do a feelings-swap, where we avoid feeling sad or lonely or afraid or inadequate, and feel angry instead. It can work the other way, too – sometimes you do need to feel angry, not inadequate; sometimes you do need to feel love and acceptance, and not the tragic drama of your life. It takes courage to feel the feeling – and not trade it on the feelings-exchange, or even transfer it altogether to another person.