Reading is the last act of secular prayer.

The oldest principle of composition: repeat everything.

I keep a quotes journal - of every sentence that I've wanted to remember from my reading of the past 30 years.

I would say the flip side to my fascination with systems is a fascination with components. So many of my books are dialogues between little and big.

Evil is the refusal to see one's self in others.

We will live with racism for ever. But senses of self, senses of belonging, senses of us and of others? Those are up for grabs.

What I really like to learn how to do is to build sentences that are equal to mental states.