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.

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 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'm very eclectic in my music tastes - anything from Nina Simone to Beethoven to Talvin Singh.

I wish I got a lie-in on Saturday mornings but I never do.

I was always an outsider, always standing outside, observing and trying to figure things out. Which is exactly what you need to do as a writer, I suppose.

The thing about getting older is that you don't need everything to be possible any more, you just need things to be certain.

She touched his hand for the last time. Oh, Karim, that we have already done. But always there was a problem between us. How can I explain? I wasn't me, and you weren't you. From the very beginning to the very end, we didn't see things. What we did--we made each other up. p. 382