A new car is not going to change your life.

I wish I got a lie-in on Saturday mornings but I never do.

I started writing 'Brick Lane' when my children were two years and five months old. We were on holiday in the north of England when I was overtaken by a compulsion to start writing.

I'm very eclectic in my music tastes - anything from Nina Simone to Beethoven to Talvin Singh.

If the culture is so all pervasive that you can’t think outside of it, how are you making genuine choices?

I get really excited if I think I'm going to introduce somebody to a writer they haven't found before and I think they'll love. My favorite books to get as gifts are any that the giver is messianic about.

I always try to create conflict and drama in my books; it's the engine of the novel.