I like the idea of a big caesura between the narratives, a space which readers can fill in with their own speculative history.

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.

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.

For many weeks after [my wife] died, I could not get used to the feeling of coldness and lifelessness on her side of the bed - and it was even worse when they took the body away and buried her.

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

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.

As soon as you start writing about how human beings interact with each other socially, you're into politics, aren't you?