When I see my friends engaging in a Twitter war for an afternoon, I think that would destroy me for a month.

The object of the passion is just an accessory to the passion itself.

It's got two aspects. The bit that involves the public life I could not really tolerate and cannot really tolerate. I just can't get used to the idea of being somebody unreal in people's minds. I can't live my life like that.

I find it impossible to experience either pride or shame over accidents of genetics in which I had no active part. I'm not necessarily proud to be female. I am not even proud to be human — I only love to be so.

It's easy to confuse a woman for a philosophy

World makers, social network makers, ask one question first: 'How can I do it?'

When I was 21 I wanted to write like Kafka. But, unfortunately for me, I wrote like a script editor for The Simpsons who'd briefly joined a religious cult and then discovered Foucault. Such is life.