She understood that her heart operated on its own instructions, that she had no control over it or, indeed, anything else.

The worst thing about religion was religious people.

Sourmelina's secret (as Aunt Zo put it): 'Lina was one of those women they named the island after.

The ideas for my books come about in two ways. There can be an intellectual idea that seems to be the reason for writing the book. [...] The other motive is unconscious. There is something deeply psychological and emotional that draws me to the material in the first place.

My change from girl to boy was far less dramatic than the distance anybody travels from infancy to adulthood.

Emotions, in my experience, aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness", "joy", or "regret". Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that is oversimplifies feeling. I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions.

Paris was a museum displaying exactly itself.