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.

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.

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 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.

Well, I like the rain before it falls.

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