No fiction, no myths, no lies, no tangled webs - this is how Irie imagined her homeland. Because homeland is one of the magical fantasy words like unicorn and soul and infinity that have now passed into language.

Time is how you spend your love.

Nowadays, I know the true reason I read is to feel less alone, to make a connection with a consciousness other than my own.

It’s such a confidence trick, writing a novel. The main person you have to trick into confidence is yourself. This is hard to do alone.

I'm most honest about writing when I'm talking to family or friends, not to newspapers.

If you're going to write a good book, you have to make mistakes and you have to not be so cautious all the time.

Try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.