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.

I think that if the novel's task is to describe where we find ourselves and how we live now, the novelist must take a good, hard look at the most central facts of contemporary life - technology and science.

Music forecasts the past, recalls the future. Now and then the difference falls away, and in one simple gift of circling sound, the ear solves the scrambled cryptogram. One abiding rhythm, present and always, and you're free. But a few measures more, and the cloak of time closes back around you.

I used to work for 12 or 14 hours at a time but the digital age has made such happy immersions almost impossible.

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

I'd like, each time out as a writer, to reinvent who I am and what I'm doing. That's one of the great pleasures and rewards of the occupation.

The use of music is to remind us how short a time we have a body.