She should have done science, not spent all her time with her head in novels. Novels gave you a completely false idea about life, they told lies and they implied there were endings when in reality there were no endings, everything just went on and on and on.

In the end, it is my belief, words are the only things that can construct a world that makes sense.

What if we had a chance to do it again and again, until we finally did get it right? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

No point in thinking, you just have to get on with life. We only have one after all, we should try and do our best. We can never get it right, but we must try.

You can step in the same river but the water will always be new.

I had a novel in the back of my mind when I won an Ian St James story competition in 1993. At the award ceremony an agent asked me if I was writing a novel. I showed her four or five chapters of what would become 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' and to my surprise she auctioned them off.

Oh, God. What was happening to her, she was turning into a normal person.