The last three books are much more a case of a moment of history, what happened almost by accident or coincidence, like being in the same elevator or lifeboat.

I don't have a plan for a story when I sit down to write. I would get quite bored carrying it out.

When I write my novels I don't really have a huge plan beforehand; I don't have the whole plot and architecture, so the story is sort of discovered as I write it.

We are expanded by tears, we are told, not reduced by them.

Do you understand the sadness of geography?

For the first forty days a child is given dreams of previous lives. Journeys, winding paths, a hundred small lessons and then the past is erased.

How does this happen? To fall in love and be disassembled.