But I don't write about sex for today's teenagers. Or Doc Martens boots either. I'm more interested in exploring how exactly the world is run, which doesn't really change that much from one generation to another.

A writer's work may be a coded autobiography, but only a very close friend could decipher it.

I grew up on a suburban street with lace curtains and dull neighbours, so I made up stories to tell my friend, in which they became serial killers and burglars. She told her mother, who then told mine.

I've never found it made the slightest difference being a woman - though there is a sort of feeling that as you get older you're not so interesting.

People's lives are in the care of the railways when they get on a train. The railways should remember that.

I would hate to live in the country, unless I was living on a farm.

If you are going to make companies, corporations, actually responsible for the safety of other people's lives, then if they fail in their duty, the only thing to prevent them failing in their duty is the fear that they would be put behind bars.