If you write what you know about, you will always be on safe ground. I am very edgy and nervous about going into territories I know nothing about. That's why you don't find much high finance, group sex, or yachting parties in my stories.

I've seen a lot of people buy my books and then fall asleep on the plane soon afterwards.

My mother was a trained nurse, and she'd tell me that patients would fight as they were administered anaesthetic, grappling to get the gas mask off their face.

My memory of my home was that it was very happy, and that there was more fun and life there than there was anywhere else.

I'm pleased to have outsold great writers. But I'm not insane - I realize I am a writer people buy to take on vacation.

I'm getting better, happier, and nicer as I grow older, so I would be terrific in a couple of hundred years time.

Because I saw my parents relaxing in armchairs and reading and liking it, I thought it was a peaceful grown-up thing to do, and I still think that.