Fate is a quantity very much like TV: an unstoppable narrative, written, produced and directed by somebody else.

It's a feeling of happiness that knocks me clean out of adjectives. I think sometimes that the best reason for writing novels is to experience those four and a half hours after you write the final word.

As far as I'm concerned, if you want to find out about the last day of WWII or the roots of the Indian Mutiny, get thee to a books catalogue.

Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.

I never bought the idea of individual genius from which the novel spews forth. It's always an act of curation.

Sometimes you get a flash of what you look like to other people.

Most of the cruelty in the world is just misplaced energy.