I wrote 'White Teeth' in the late nineties. I didn't really feel trepidatious about it. It was a different time.

I'm just interested in women's friendships generally. It always seems to me, and this is just my pet theory, that women are kind of at the sharp end of capitalism one way or another. Mainly because they buy everything. In a practical sense, women buy most things. They're always comparing - to friends, to famous people, to other people. An obsessive act of comparison.

They had nothing to say to each other. A five-year age gap between siblings is like a garden that needs constant attention. Even three months apart allows the weeds to grow up between you.

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.

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

Generally, women can't do this, but men retain the ancient ability to leave a family and a past. They just unhook themselves, like removing a fake beard, and skulk discreetly back into society, changed men. Unrecognizable.

The library was the place I went to find out what there was to know. It was absolutely essential.