I always say I write my own novels and the characters don't take control of me, but in fact, I look at the characters in the early stages and I think, 'What is he or she like,' and they slowly come together and they become the person they are.

I think my characters with my fingers, I think my characters with my guts. But when I say I think them, that is what I do, I feel them with the sympathetic neurons and I work out with my brain what it is that I am trying to write about, or I can't do it.

To become an astronaut, someone has to have a dream of his own to do something that he or she has always wanted to do, then commit himself to making that dream come true.

I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.

I think vestigially there's a synesthete in me, but not like a real one who immediately knows what colour Wednesday is.

I think the most insulting thing you can do to a director is to challenge when he or she is satisfied with your interpretation.