Now that I live in Southern California, my current world certainly speaks to me, and I sense that my next book will have a more American and southerly setting. But that's certainly not to say I won't be back to Leaford.

Write,' she said, 'as if you'll never be read. That way you'll be sure to tell the truth.

We're seeing a decline in religion in North America but, I hope, a rise in individual spirituality. Whatever that means to people.

When we talk about God, I think what most of us mean is some greater thing, some higher power that can help us access our own strength or give us strength.

The strangest thing about strange things is that they're only strange when you hear about them or think about them later, but never when you're living them.

I hum some secret place into being, thinking of this other me, the one that only I can see, a girl called She, who is not We, a girl who I will never be.

When you stand outside, you look around and find that the people you're with live on the fringes.