It seems to me that anyone whose library consists of a Kindle lying on a table is some sort of bloodless nerd.

Wars are fought by children. Conceived by their mad demonic elders, and fought by boys.

You learn a lot, writing fiction.

Forever, reading has been central, the necessary fix, the support system. Her life has been informed by reading. She has read not just for distraction, sustenance, to pass the time, but she has read in a state of primal innocence, reading for enlightenment, for instruction, even. ... She is as much a product of what she has read as of the way in which she has lived; she is like millions of others built by books, for whom books are an essential foodstuff, who could starve without.

the days of our lives vanish utterly, more insubstantial than if they had been invented. Fiction can seem more enduring than reality.

The Photograph is concerned with the power that the past has to interfere with the present: the time bomb in the cupboard.

It seems to me that everything that happens to us is a disconcerting mix of choice and contingency.