People always want to identify a writer with their protagonist.

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

I guess there's a sort of cycle with writing books. There's all the researching and then the imagining and writing - which is the real job - and then there's always a period when the book comes out and you have to lift your head and venture out.

I was always an outsider, always standing outside, observing and trying to figure things out. Which is exactly what you need to do as a writer, I suppose.

I don't want to get hung up on what 'people,' that nebulous mass, think about me. That's the way to unhappiness, I think.

The thing about getting older is that you don't need everything to be possible any more, you just need things to be certain.

I rarely get a moment to myself, but I love the way that my agenda is dictated by the children, not my work.