I think I would have liked to have been a twin... Sometimes my sisters and I get mistaken for twins, and I always take it as a compliment.

Perhaps this is how you know you're doing the thing you're intended to: No matter how slow or how slight your progress, you never feel that it's a waste of time.

Probably I, like a lot of people, became a writer in imitation of or in homage to the books I enjoyed. When you're so captivated by something, you think, could I do that? Hmm, let me try

We all make mistakes, don't we? But if you can't forgive yourself, you'll always be an exile in your own life.

People who think my books are autobiographical, which they're not, credit me with having a much better memory than I do. I do, however, have a powerful imagination

I don't really have special rituals, but I don't try to write fiction unless I have a minimum of a few hours. For me, it takes a while to settle into a mode where I'm truly concentrating

We have to make mistakes, its how we learn compassion for others

I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely.

Obviously the bar is much higher now for a behavior to be scandalous. Social media has really changed the way people live. It's not a new impulse; it's just being enacted in a new way.

I don't think it's shameful to admit that some days your time can be better spent reading than writing.

I have this theory that the likeability question comes up so much more with female characters created by female authors than it does with male characters and male authors

Come see the cherry trees of a water constellationand the round key of the rapid universe, come touch the fire of instantaneous blue, come before its petals are consumed.

In the Belgian backwaters, south of Bruges, there lives a reclusive English composer, named Vyvyan Ayrs. You won’t have heard of him because you’re a musical oaf, but he’s one of the greats.

The secret of real prosperity in the church is to teach God’s people principles of economic empowerment

I took a gamble in becoming an actor and my dream job has been realised.

There seems no plan because it is all plan.

I find the question of whether gender differences are biologically determined or socially constructed to be deeply disturbing.

The truth, however, was stranger still.

There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers

First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.

I often plagiarize from myself. I like to think of this as ecological journalism: I recycle.