Because I come from the theater, I use the images of the theater and of movies a great deal when I write. I see the story in my head. I have to break down the outline of a story first. I have to know where I'm going. Usually I have a good beginning and a good ending, and then I think, "Now I have to find my way through it."

I am told that the first comprehensible word I uttered as a child was 'home.

Can I give them what they think they're going to get from me? That's always the big question.

All love shifts and changes.

These days, people like me who are in the arts are perceived as celebrity writers. That really makes me angry because I expend a great deal of effort and spend an enormous amount of time on my books. And I've been writing now for 35 years.

Books make great gifts because they're everybody's favorite things.

I am very proud to be British. I'm very conscious of carrying my country with me wherever I go. I feel I need to represent it well.