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

Initially I only decided to try and write a novel because I wasn't getting enough screenwriting work. It wasn't a long-held ambition, and certainly the idea came first.

Just because we think of wolves (or the wilderness, or another race) as wild and fierce, doesn't mean there isn't another side to them.

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

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

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.

I don't use real people for inspiration.