We're being subject to incredible amounts of surveillance, the police are taking on draconian powers and violating our rights. I think this attempt to protect ourselves is ultimately going to founder because people don't like living inside prisons.

You're never rude,' she said, smiling, 'and I think it's good to be touchy sometimes. It means you care.

The mobile phone is very dangerous. If you're walking and looking at your phone, you're not walking - you're surfing the internet.

We should be very skeptical of people who want to place limits on how we express ourselves.

Novels are make-believe and play for adults.

I think that we live in a world - and this is something which living in Pakistan, perhaps, has taught me - and, you know, we live in a world where there is a constant feed from social media, the news, etc., of things that can scare us. And we become so anxious because human beings are meant - are designed to be sensitized to dangerous stuff.

I really do believe that people surprise you. And one of the powerful things about novels is that they're about characters, and those characters live their lives.