I have an irregular heartbeat, so that means a fair amount of medication - and I have blood pressure pills, too, but no vitamins or supplements.

I'm mainly an airport author, and if you're trying to take your mind off the journey, you're not going to read 'King Lear.'

If I see Marian Keyes' books or Patricia Scanlan's books given more prominence than mine in the bookstore, I'll move mine to the front. I've told them I do this, and they've confessed to doing the same thing to me.

I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks.

I have been lucky enough to travel a lot, meet great people in many lands. I have liked almost everyone I met along the way.

I never wanted to write. I just wrote letters home from a kibbutz in Israel to reassure my parents that I was still alive and well fed and having a great time. They thought these letters were brilliant and sent them to a newspaper. So I became a writer by accident.

I look placid, you see, that's why people think I'm fine. Inside I worry a lot.