It seems to me now that the deep structures [in writing] are often subconscious and set in childhood.

She wore her sexuality with an older woman's ease, and not like an awkward purse, never knowing how to hold it, where to hang it, or when to just put it down.

I just realized quite early on that I'm not going to be the type who can write a novel every two years. I think you need to feel an urgency about the act. Otherwise, when you read it, you feel no urgency, either. So I don't write unless I really feel I need to, and that's a luxury.

I wrote 'White Teeth' in the late nineties. I didn't really feel trepidatious about it. It was a different time.

It's easy to confuse a woman for a philosophy

Time is how you spend your love.

It was a kiss from the past.