The greatest lie ever told about love is that it sets you free.

The young people have a phrase for this now, which is "slay in your lane." That's a very important principle of writing. You have to work out what it is you can't do, obscure it, and focus on what works.

I guess I've always written more from the opposite perspective, that kind of existentialist perspective which argues that existence precedes essence. And there really isn't anything essential in there - you're the product of your actions, which can always change. And they retrospectively make you one way or another.

First rule of writing: When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.

He had her in his heart, but not always in his mind.

Novels and stories are sometimes very complex staging grounds to say, in fact, very simple things. Things impossible to say otherwise because they are repeated in so many exploitative contexts - adverts and TV shows and political speeches.

You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality.