I think a lot of artists no longer want to participate in or be associated with narrative because of its corruptedness in contemporary culture.

I am a good and interested mother - which has surprised me.

The true self seeks release, not constraint. It doesnt want to be corseted in a sonnet or made to learn a system of musical notations. It wants liberation, which is why very often it fastens on the novel, for the novel seems spacious, undefined, free.

Having your second child, in case you were wondering, is a lot harder than having your first, except for those people who find it easier. I'm afraid I don't have the latest figures to confirm this.

My children are living, thinking human beings. It isn't in my power to regret them, for they belong to themselves.

I'm a novelist, not a social scientist or a commentator.

I have no sense of a model or predecessor when I write a memoir: For me, the form exists as a method of processing material that retains too many connections to life to be approached strictly and aesthetically. A memoir is a risk, a one-off, a bastard child.