It is important not to force a character into something. Fiction writers can be too controlling - usually that's a terror of our own unconscious processes.

I am much better at saying how I feel when I no longer feel it.

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 only selfish life is a timid one.

Art can make a difference because it pulls people up short. It says, don't accept things for their face value; you don't have to go along with any of this; you can think for yourself.

Whoever it is you fall in love with for the first time, not just love but be in love with, is the one who will always make you angry, the one you can't be logical about.

The most prosaic of us betray a belief in the inward life every time we talk about 'my body' rather than 'I.