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

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

I didn't think I had anything particular to say, but I thought I might have something to say to children.

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.

The idea that memory is linear is nonsense. What we have in our heads is a collection of frames. As to time itself-can it be linear when all these snatches of other presents exist at once in your mind? A very elusive and tricky concept, time.

People die, but money never does.

I didn't write anything until I was well over 30.