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I'm always imposing my taste in books on others. I hope that people enjoy being surprised by a book they might not otherwise read - I enjoy the surprise myself when others do this to me.

I am becoming increasingly difficult to please as a reader, but I adore being surprised by a really wonderful book, written by someone I've never heard of before.

There's a moment in every book when the book turns and it surprises me.

I try not to recommend too many books, frankly, because I think there's a certain synchronicity that happens when people discover books.

I think the kind of unexpected I really love is when you open books and the actual way of writing is different and interesting. Like reading Virginia Woolf for the first time or Lawrence Durrell for the first time.

As a reader, I much prefer to read a book where people embody all kinds of ideas and everybody is making mistakes.

The bewildering success of my books continues to surprise me.

I like books that are exciting and that make you think about things as well.

A book's flaws make it less predictable.

I hope for so much from every book I read. And time and again, I find myself disappointed. I look across my bookshelves and see hundreds of titles which in my memory seem merely mediocre or second-rate. Only occasionally does a novel appear for which I feel a lasting passion, a book that I think could in time become a classic.