One of the paradoxes of writing is that when you write non-fiction everyone tries to prove that it's wrong, and when you publish fiction, everyone tries to see the truth in it.

Honesty and authenticity are a big deal for me.

One minute I was playing chess and doing maths all the time, the next I had been rerouted into more 'normal' girls' activities: reading, writing stories and worrying about my clothes.

I erased the thought from my mind, but I couldn't undo the fact that I'd had the thought in the first place.

One of the biggest problems for beginning writers is this need to over-explain.

Everything I know I imagine everyone else knows as well. And then everything that everyone else knows I imagine they know on top of what I know, so I'm constantly anxious about what everyone else knows.

My novels are high concept. I guess big ideas interest me more than, say, the minutiae of domestic life.