To a novelist, fluidity is the ultimate good omen; suddenly difficult problems are simply solved, intractable structural knots loosen themselves, and you come upon the key without even recognizing that this is what you hold.

I have a natural tendency to feel well about the world, I suppose, one way or another. But then there is the problem of pain. There are things like [Abraham] Lincoln's beloved little boy dying.

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

When I was young, I was very technical about these things. I didn't like to admit to any intimate relation with what I was writing.

She did what girls generally do when they don't feel the part: she dressed it instead.

She loved you in the morning because the day was new.

I don't keep any copies of my books in the house - they go to my mum's flat. I don't like them around.