It seems to me that you need a lot of courage, or a lot of something, to enter into others, into other people. We all think that everyone else lives in fortresses, in fastnesses: behind moats, behind sheer walls studded with spikes and broken glass. But in fact we inhabit much punier structures. We are, as it turns out, all jerry-built. Or not even. You can just stick your head under the flap of the tent and crawl right in. If you get the okay.

My life looked good on paper - where, in fact, almost all of it was being lived.

You cannot combine being a movie star with not being a movie star.

He awoke at six, as usual. He needed no alarm clock. He was already comprehensively alarmed.

People are always talking on their phones, or looking at their phones, because they don't want to be alone with their thoughts.

I don't think I've ever been particularly scared of death - but scared of dying, the process. It doesn't seem to be a good way of doing it.

I think a lot of people who read fiction are interested in subtlety. But they wouldn't like my stuff. It's a bit too violent for many tastes.