Because I work quite slowly, I have to keep myself interested over a long research and writing period. So I can't see myself writing about modern middle-class Londoners anytime soon.

...it just goes to show you can't leave anything behind. You bring it all with you, whether you want to or not.

I definitely do feel a pull toward people and places that are far from my own life.

I despise this weakness in myself - this endless one-sided conversation that takes the place of action.

Whenever I pick up a book I think, "Tell me something I don't know."

Clearly the secret of happiness...is a variation on the general principle of banging your head against a wall, and then stopping.

I love research, and in fact it's liberating because you have to create your own world. No one can say "I've just got back from the 1860s, and you got it wrong." Anyway, it's fiction.