I'm Very Keenly Aware That There Aren't

I Have A Small Room To Write In. One Wall Is Completely Covered In Books. And I Face The Window With The Curtain Closed To Stop The Light Hitting The Computer.

People Whose Lives Are Upside Down Often Read Fiction. When You're Not Sure Where You'll End Up Or How You Are Going To Be, And You're Looking For Some Way Forward, Fiction Is A Great Friend.

And What Amazes Me As I Hit The Motorway Is Not The Fact That Everyone Loses Someone, But That Everyone Loves Someone. It Seems Like Such A Massive Waste Of Energy -- And We All Do It, All The People Beetling Along Between The White Lines, Merging, Converging, Overtaking. We Each Love Someone, Even Though They Will Die. And We Keep Loving Them, Even When They Are Not There To Love Any More. And There Is No Logic Or Use To Any Of This, That I Can See.

People Think Motherhood Involves A Lot Of Domestic Labor, And It Doesn't. It Involves Being Nice To Your Children As Often As Possible. That's Part Of My Trick. I Don't Have That Anxiety About Meeting Their Needs.

I've Heard People, Usually Writers, Say That No One Wrote A Great Book After Winning The Booker, But I Honestly Did Not Feel Any Big Pressure. The Gathering Did Hang Over Me In That It Was Darker Than I Thought At The Time.