I believe the era of the militant lady is back.

For a novelist, the gaps in a story are as intriguing as material that still exists.

A book is a story, even if it's non-fiction, and once I've read it, I have the story with me inside my head always.

Writers of novels live in a strange world where what's made up is as important as what's real.

History at its best is a gritty, dirty business.

It is one of the benchmarks of a culture I always think – the page at which it operates. A good way to measure it is to order a taxi and see how irate local people get if it is late.

People make interesting assumptions about the profession. The writer is a mysterious figure, wandering lonely as a cloud, fired by inspiration, or perhaps a cocktail or two.