And when you look at the sky you know you are looking at stars which are hundreds and thousands of light-years away from you. And some of the stars don’t even exist anymore because their light has taken so long to get to us that they are already dead, or they have exploded and collapsed into red dwarfs. And that makes you seem very small, and if you have difficult things in you life it is nice to think that they are what is called negligible, which means they are so small you don’t have to take them into account when you are calculating something.

I knew there was a story; once you find a dog with a fork through it, you know there's a story there.

From a good book, I want to be taken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into that outer darkness.

All the other children at my school are stupid. Except I'm not meant to call them stupid, even though this is what they are.

Things can be funny when people are uneasy. It softens them up and stops them falling asleep on the sofa. I like those moments where people half-smile and half-wince.

Everyone has learning difficulties, because learning to speak French or understanding relativity is difficult.

I don't remember deciding to become a writer. You decide to become a dentist or a postman. For me, writing is like being gay. You finally admit that this is who you are, you come out and hope that no one runs away.