It had never occurred to me that our lives, which had been so closely interwoven, could unravel with such speed.

There was surely nothing to indicate at the time that such evidently small incidents would render whole dreams forever irredeemable.

Even the solitude, I've actually grown to quite like... I do like the feeling of getting into my little car, knowing for the next couple of hours I'll have only the roads, the big gray sky and my daydreams for company.

She always wanted to believe in things.

When we lost something precious, and we'd looked and looked and still couldn't find it, then we didn't have to be completely heartbroken. We still had that last bit of comfort, thinking one day, when we grow up, and we were free to travel around the counry, we would always go and find it in Norfolk...And that's why years and years later, that day Tommy and I found another copy of that lost tape of mine in a town on the Norfolk coast, we didn't just think it pretty funny; we both felt deep down some tug, some old wish to believe again in something that was once close to our hearts.

Every country should have a strong literary tradition of its own at the center, but it should also have an interest in other countries.

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