Kids are naturally inventive and curious and creative, but most adults have had that beaten out of them. Writing is a form of play; you have to get rid of all those internal censors that we adults have, the things that say, 'Don't go there, that's not allowed.'

We open a book, we turn a newspaper page, we allow the television and the radio to come into our homes. All the things we are told every day – are the true?

When you have fallen low, she told herself, what hurts is pretending you are high.

He would not come again. This was good. No. This was bad. At least it was an end.

Her need for love is as wide as that sky out there and as impossible for an unwinged mortal to fulfill.

I get really excited if I think I’m going to introduce somebody to a writer they haven’t found before and I think they’ll love. My favorite books to get as gifts are any that the giver is messianic about.

I don’t look down on them, but what can you do? If a man has only ever driven a rickshaw and never in his life held a book in his hand, then what can you expect from him?

Some writers are more natural public performers than others; personally I find it quite strange giving interviews. But everyone has parts of their job that they like more than others. You can’t complain if you get to do what you love doing most of the time, can you?

I guess there’s a sort of cycle with writing books. There’s all the researching and then the imagining and writing – which is the real job – and then there’s always a period when the book comes out and you have to lift your head and venture out.

I’m very eclectic in my music tastes – anything from Nina Simone to Beethoven to Talvin Singh.