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The Booker Prize is a big, popular prize for big, popular books, and that's the way it should be.

People aren't quite sure what it means when a book is a Booker Prize winner. They're not quite sure what is being recommended, what literary values it stands for, because every year it stands for something different.

I'll always struggle over saying I'm a writer, even if I won the Booker Prize.

The Commonwealth Prize is about celebrating the Commonwealth and the special relationship we have with the ex-colonies - which is part guilt and part warmth - and the Booker Prize isn't an essential part of that, but it is part of that.

It is a great deal of difference to receive an honorary title or a title in his profession.

The Booker 2011 is of no more interest to me than the world heavyweight championship, which I'm not going to win either. It's irrelevant.

I hate to tell you this, but I did not know what the National Book Award was when I got the call.

I am not expecting anyone to feel sorry for me, but when friends ask how it feels to be a debut novelist who has also been long listed for the Man Booker prize, I have to admit that my response has confused me. I am so overwhelmed, so delighted, so honoured and so surprised, I have come out in a violent cold.

I was delighted when Booktrust asked me to be chair of judges for the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2010.

I was very surprised when I heard that I had been chosen to receive the James Cardinal Gibbons Award.