I've yet to meet somebody who said, 'Your stories are so revolting I couldn't read them.'

You can spin stories out of the ways people understand and misunderstand each other.

My parents were keen for me to have the education they themselves never had. They weren't able to guide me towards particular books, but they encouraged me to read, which I did, randomly and compulsively.

Reading reviews makes you thin-skinned. It's like waves washing layers off your skin.

I was an intimate sort of child who never spoke up in groups. I preferred close friends.

It's good to get your hands dirty a bit and to test how you see things at a given point. And it's very pleasing after writing something like 'Atonement' or 'On Chesil Beach,' which are historical, to get involved in some plausible re-enactment of the here and now.