Everyone thinks writers must know more about the inside of the human head, but that's wrong. They know less, that's why they write. Trying to find out what everyone else takes for granted.

Communications technology changes possibilities for communication, but that doesn't mean it changes the inherited structure of the brain. So you may think that you're addicted to online reading, but as soon as it isn't available anymore, your brain will pretty immediately adjust to other forms of reading. It's a habit like all habits.

There are some virtues to not saying what you think all the time.

No male writer is likely to be asked to sit on a panel addressing itself to the special problems of a male writer.

Writing... is an act of faith: I believe it's also an act of hope, the hope that things can get better than they are.

It's rather useless to write a gripping narrative with nothing in it but climate change because novels are always about people even if they purport to be about rabbits or robots.

A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.