I find Japanese books quite baffling when I read them in translation. It's only with Haruki Murakami that I find Japanse fiction that I can understand and relate to. He's a very international writer.

When I see films made from books, I make a huge effort not to remember the book. It's important to see the film as a film.

When you become a parent, or a teacher, you turn into a manager of this whole system. You become the person controlling the bubble of innocence around a child, regulating it.

Its was one of those events which at a crucial stage in one's development arrive to challenge and stretch one to the limit of one's ability and beyond, so that thereafter one has a new standard by which to judge oneself.

All children have to be deceived if they are to grow up without trauma.

As a writer, I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.

I spent ages figuring out things like viewpoint, how you tell the story, and so on.