It seems to me that you would have to write a novel on a very small, intimate scale for it not to become political.

Writers never feel comfortable having labels attached to them, however accurate they are.

I like the rain before it falls. of course there is no such thing, she said. That's why it's my favorite. Something can still make you happy, can't it, even if it isn't real.

I live a perfectly happy and comfortable life in Blair's Britain, but I can't work up much affection for the culture we've created for ourselves: it's too cynical, too knowing, too ironic, too empty of real value and meaning.

But at the same time, I have trouble keeping things out of books, which is why I don't write short stories because they turn into novels.

Ah, well, I have no talent for nonfiction, that's my problem.

I had no sense of any reputation that What a Carve Up! might acquire - at the time I didnt even have a publisher, so my main worry was whether it was even going to see the light of day or not.