I think that sense of unreality inspired me to write the story within the book that [August] Brill tells himself, one of the stories he tells himself.

There is a double rhythm in all human beings. We are binary beings - two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears. Two legs for walking. And the heartbeat thumping in our chest mirrors that.

The tone of every book is slightly different; there's a music that each has that is distinct from all the others.

But lost chances are as much a part of life as chances taken, and a story cannot dwell on what might have been.

We are all aliens to ourselves, and if we have any sense of who we are, it is only because we live inside the eyes of others.

At that point, Noriko finally breaks down and begins to cry sobbing into her hands as the floodgates open - this young woman who has suffered in silence for so long, this good woman who refuse to believe she's good, for only the good doubt their own goodness, which is what makes them good in the first place. The bad know they are good, but the good know nothing. They spend their lives forgiving others, but they can't forgive themselves.

I knew from the age of 16 that I wanted to be a writer because I just didn't think I could do anything else. So I read and read and wrote short stories and dreamed of escape.