You don't write because someone sets assignments! You write because you need to write, or because you hope someone will listen or because writing will mend something broken inside you or bring something back to life.

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.

Some books you read. Some books you enjoy. But some books just swallow you up, heart and soul.

A man who casts no shadow isn't really a man at all.

What is a writer of fiction but a liar with a licence?

I'm incapable of hiding my feelings when I'm around someone I don't like.

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.