I had to wait for a long time before I could support myself with writing. However, being a writer is what I have most wanted to be, from the time I was a child.

By the time ordinary life asserted itself once more, I would feel I had already lived for a while in some other lifetime, that I had even taken over someone else's life.

You can't say you want things to be simple and then in the next breath ask me to be honest.

At the same time, I think books create a sort of network in the reader's mind, with one book reinforcing another. Some books form relationships. Other books stand in opposition. No two writers or readers have the same pattern of interaction.

People can say what they like about the eternal verities, love and truth and so on, but nothing's as eternal as the dishes.

Perhaps every time anyone is praised it means that someone else somewhere is going to be ignored

New Zealand is the only country I know well enough to write about. It can sometimes lead to complications.