I have absolutely no concept of work, except for university. But I like to talk to people a lot about their jobs.

The reaction to 'Aftermath' has been far worse than to 'A Life's Work,' yet I find I'm perhaps a little less touched by it. In both cases, I've coped artistically by believing the criticisms weren't right. They upset me, but they didn't challenge my understanding of how to write, nor of how morality functions in literature.

Hope is one of those no-win-no-fee things, and although it needs some encouragement to survive, its existence doesn't necessarily prove anything.

How can there be so many mothers in the world but so little sense of what it might be to become one?

I absolutely don't dislike children - I would choose their company over adult company any time.

For me, a novel is always the result of my attempt to impose myself on raw circumstances. It is a concrete form of lived experience.

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