I've never been very good at leaving things behind. I tried, but I have always left fragments of myself there too, like seeds awaiting their chance to grow.

Sometimes survival is the worst alternative there is

I'm not sure I believe in the whole 'ghost-afterlife' thing, but I think places are marked by people who have been there.

I've nothing against kids reading anything they please, but I do have a problem with pink books for girls and black books for boys.

If you want to know what's important to a culture, learn their language.

I've never been very good at leaving things behind. I tried, but I have always left fragments of myself there too, like seeds awaiting their chance to grow.

Of course I didn't pioneer the use of food in fiction: it has been a standard literary device since Chaucer and Rabelais, who used food wonderfully as a metaphor for sensuality.