“Discover the times when you're most creative - mornings, nights, afternoons - and clear the time to work then. Many writers find the mornings are best, and the afternoons are only good for editorial corrections, or getting the washing done. Others can only work through the night, drunk.”
“My favourite room in my house is easily the top room, which is a bedroom but also a bathroom, with a big, wooden carved bath, two huge fireplaces and a raised bit in the corner for performances. I've had some really lovely parties and poetry readings up there.”
“All I want is for people, when they read my books, to feel companioned, to feel they're not alone in the world.”
“I'm always running my mouth off and getting myself in trouble, so I'm trying to do it less.”
“I'm quite easy to live with and very easy going.”
“I've written something like 17 novels, which isn't bad, I suppose, but my father wrote 120 books, my mother 40. In comparison, I'm lazy.”
“If people want to take their lives and are helped to do so, the punishment is tragic for all concerned.”
“Men take much more notice of older women in France, so I might move there. I think I'm a good bet.”
“My first novel, 'You Must be Sisters,' was started in Pakistan. I've wrote several novels and a TV drama set or partly-set there.”
“Psych yourself up until you're confident that the world will be interested in what happens to your characters. Confidence is key.”