Those beliefs about the essential goodness or beauty of the world are fundamentally paper-thin bullshit. There's not an essential belief that isn't a contingent belief. It could all be destroyed in a second, at any second. And I have an issue with that.

The novel leads you places that you never could have gotten to otherwise.

Step back from your Facebook Wall for a moment: Doesn't it, suddenly, look a little ridiculous? Your life in this format?

Novels are not about expressing yourself, they're about something beautiful, funny, clever and organic. Self-expression ? Go and ring a bell in a yard if you want to express yourself.

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.

The nineties, ecstatic decade!

Art is the Western myth, with which we both console ourselves and make ourselves.