Most of us get our history through story.

I preferred to set off and perish in search of my own kind than to live a lonely half-life of physical comfort and spiritual death on this murderous island.

My greatest wish - other than salvation - was to have a book.

The planet is populated by human beings, of which there are only two sexes, and the role of the writer is to explore otherness, other realities. So the idea of a man exploring what it's like to be a woman doesn't strike me as being that wild or crazy an idea.

The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity – it’s envy.

I can't live for more than four years outside of Canada. I'm Canadian, so ultimately that is my reference point.

There is nothing more satisfying than having a sentence fall into place in a way you feel is right, and then adding another one and then another one. It's extraordinarily satisfying.