I have always thought that these two ways of talking, one is the fantastic, the fable, the fairy tale, and the other being history, the scholarly study of what happened, I think they're both amazing ways to understand human nature.

Before I came to England, my favorite authors were P. G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie. I used to devour both.

Ideas are interesting to me, and religions are a place where ideas have been very subtly embodied for thousands of years. All literature started as sacred literature.

What's the use of stories that aren't even true?

Sometimes writing a novel is not unlike having a baby. You'd have to ask a female novelist to compare the pain.

All my adult life, if I didn't have several hours a day to sit in a room by myself, I would get antsy and irritable.

Bread and books: food for the body and food for the soul - what could be more worthy of our respect, and even love?