I think those women who get themselves to write essays, it's not an easy thing to do because as women, you're not encouraged to think; you're encouraged to feel. This is a broad, broad statement. So I think those women who go out on a limb and publish essays are highly conscious of how they are writing their opinions.

I don't think anybody says to Coetzee or Dostoyevsky or Kafka, "Your characters aren't likeable." It's not about your character winning a popularity contest. That's not the writer's job.

I'm very interested in animal behavior, and the relationship of human beings to other animal behavior.

Obviously the Internet makes everything easier - you get people's addresses and so on and everything seems much more accessible.

I like to invent the dialogue that I want to have heard.

Kafka wrote the great line: "my education has damaged me in ways I do not even know." And that's always been a signature motto for me.

People in the upper classes can just as easily be indifferent to their own body, or treat themselves as badly, as people who don't have the money. There are always differences among differences.