That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing - which is never an easy thing to do.

All the things that were read to me by my father were stories about things becoming all right.

My publisher, who was so good as a taster and editor, when she became a writer, lo and behold, it was all this feminine tosh.

It was a good place for getting lost in, a city no one ever knew, a city explored from the neutral heart outward, until after many years, it defined itself into a jumble of clearings separated by stretches of the unknown, through which the narrowest of paths had been cut.

I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not.

A cat only has itself.

When I learnt to write I became my own master, I became very strong, and that strength is with me to this very day.