I'm intrigued by the way in which physical appearance can often direct a person's life; things happen differently for a beautiful woman than for a plain one.

I've always been fascinated by the operation of memory - the way in which it is not linear but fragmented, and its ambivalence.

People die, but money never does.

But who knows their own child? You know bits - certain predictable reactions, a handful of familiar qualities. The rest is impenetrable. And quite right too. You give birth to them. You do not design them.

We all need a past - that's where our sense of identity comes from.

If people don't read, that's their choice; a lifelong book habit may itself be some sort of affliction.

I didn't want it to be a book that made pronouncements.