When it's mutual, a man and a woman know, instinctively, wordlessly. They may do nothing about it, but the knowledge of that shared desire is out there in the world - as obvious as neon, saying: I want you, I want you, I want you.

The last thing we ever learn about ourselves is our effect.

When you experience bereavement at a youngish age, you suddenly realise that life is unjust and unfair, that bad things will happen, and you have to take that on board.

There's a sense in all my novels that nothing is certain.

The last thing you know about yourself is your effect.

We keep a journal to entrap that collection of selves that forms us, the individual human being.

Dignity was the first quality to be abandoned when the heart took over the running of human affairs.