Our minds and memories are crowded with the common experience of nature.

I have a study now - I used not to. I also love working in cafes; ignoring noise is good for concentration.

Remove all the traffic lights, yellow lines, one-way systems and road markings, and let blissful anarchy prevail. I imagine it would produce a kind of harmony.

I like to come into my workspace and feel its a living environment and not frozen, which is why I often change or add to the pictures on the wall.

If I think about the writers I love or might be influenced by, I can't write at all, so I pretend there aren't any.

I dont get distracted until the weight of other things left undone finally tips the balance; my mind is flooded with calls, bills, supermarkets, letters, and I have to stop and sort things out.

My father was a screenwriter, but he was also a novelist.

Oh, I always think everyone feels left out.

Horses know how to be loyal but still keep their distance.

When Im writing, I spend all my time in The Grocer on Elgin buying ready-made meals; I think they are the only reason my husband and kids havent left me.

When I was a child, I wanted to raise horses in Wyoming or be a cabin boy on a pirate ship.

Since I had a soft spot for zombies and my curiosity was killing me, I opted for plan Z.

In a world of chemically induced sanity, a little lunacy confers immense advantages.

Don Quixote's 'Delusions' is an excellent read - far better than my own forthcoming travel book, 'Walking Backwards Across Tuscany.'

We focus so much on how immigrants can change America that we forget that America has always changed immigrants even more.

Arsene Wenger uses the FA Cup to bleed his youngsters

The soul does not grow by addition but by subtraction.

Parents like the idea of kids, they just don't like their kids.

If the people who hurt us have anger or desperation within them then they suffer. When you see that someone suffers, you might be motivated by a desire to help him not to suffer anymore.

I'm pretty ruthless about that; I think when you sign over your story, you sign over your story.

Telling the truth is like exposing the underside of our wings. We only see that part when we fly.