Contemporary Britain seems an endlessly fascinating place to me - but if I knew a little bit more about other places, and other times, maybe it wouldn't.

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

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

Thatcherism has become bigger than she ever was.

Objectivity is just male subjectivity.

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

We say, 'Shall we meet for a drink?', as though drinking were the main end of the appointment, and the matter of company only incidental, we are so shy about admitting our need for one another.[...]We say, 'Would you like to come for some coffee?', as though it were less frightening to acknowledge that we are heavily dependent on mildly stimulating drinks, than to acknowledge that we are at all dependent on the companionship of other people.