As a writer, my main objective is to tell the story urgently - as if whispering it into one ear - and to know the characters intimately.

Basically if you burst into my office the walls themselves will flutter as if alive - maybe that's the reason for all the wings in 'Pure.

The generation of women who came before us did much of our shouting. They laid the groundwork and now we can be calm and constant and steady.

Don't shame the young for releasing their pent-up fear.

Being cross-genre, you can encounter an image and decide not only how to best express it but what form would express it best.

The fact is there are many women who nod politely, even agree openly within their male-dominated often highly educated cultures, but vote their own minds.

I was born in the era of the novel. I've written many, as well as collections of poetry, and essays for mouthing off. I've written to inches, word-counts, page-counts, even the sonnet and the screenplay (which I call a plot poem). I write narrative. That's it. I just want to tell it.