She was a terrible mother, there was no doubt about it, but she didn't even have the strength to feel guilty.

Because I write fiction, I don't write autobiography, and to me they are very different things. The first-person narrative is a very intimate thing, but you are not addressing other people as 'I' - you are inhabiting that 'I.'

She doesn't believe in dogs," Bridget said. "Dogs are hardly an article of faith," Sylvie said.

Alternate history fascinates me, as it fascinates all novelists, because 'What if?' is the big thing.

Jennifer had never liked the pain of remembering what had happened, but for Theo it was the pain that kept Laura alive in his memory. He was afraid that if it ever began to heal she would disappear.

Men had no purpose on earth whereas women were gods walking unrecognized among them.

It wasn't that [he] believed in religion, or a God, or an afterlife. He just knew it was impossible to feel this much love and for it to end.