Normally book ideas come to me in a moment.

I wanted to wear the mantle and the pearls. I wanted to know the man who painted her like that.

You know I don’t listen to market gossip,” she began, “but it is hard not to hear it when my daughter’s name is mentioned.

Yes, well, life is a folly. If you live long enough, nothing is surprising.

I find that when I come out of the library I'm in what I call the library bliss of being totally taken away from the distractions of life.

He saw things in a way that others did not, so that a city I had lived in all my life seemed a different place, so that a woman became beautiful with the light on her face.

As I get older, I use less jewelry - necklace or earrings each morning, not both; my clothes are getting more basic - fewer colours and simpler cuts; and my make-up is stripped back to basics.