We grow, we mature, some of us give birth, we age, we die.

Things, very strange things, happen in folktales and there is never much attention given to the whys and wherefores.

But every age deserves its fashion and its forms, and no one can control what survives.

Why did people try to shush trouble away as if it were an unruly child?

Writing, for me, is always a dance between the critical part of my brain and the subconscious.

I guess I'm drawn to stories of people whose physicality puts them on the outside of things in order to explore the ways in which an identity is formed around these prevailing attitudes.

I never know where I'm headed when I'm working on a book.

We are like flowers always reaching up towards some shred of light. I find this wondrous, nearly magical, certainly brave.

I'm interested in endurance. People persist in the face of the most excruciating hardships.

As we change, the way in which we are perceived in terms of our relevance, our value, our beauty, and sexual potency changes.

The language of the novel differs from the just-the-facts language of the old tales. It's robust and earthy, sometimes even baroque.

Love will let you want and trust in Miracles.

Nothing gives me as much pleasure as travelling. I love getting on trains and boats and planes.

I'm a huge fan of Eighties music.

I always felt more emotionally attached to Cambodia than I did to Vietnam.

We're going to do everything we can to make sure workers are treated like assets, not costs.

Believe only what you know and all of what you know.

I fear that I am losing my mind. But really, it would not be such a precious thing to lose, as it only causes me pain.

A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.

I don't develop; I am.

Light has an evident, functional and aesthetic impact on our lives.