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I can't imagine writing a book without some strong female characters, unless that was a demand of the setting.

I wonder if novels work for women because they give us a safe place to talk about our ish.

Three of my novels and a good number of my short stories are told from the point of view of men. I was brought up in a house of women.

My only books were woman's looks, and folly's all they've taught me.

I want my books to force readers to recognise the fact that a woman is a human being just like them.

I don't think I'm interested in writing women's novels anymore.

After 'Kidulthood,' I was called in to a meeting and told that I didn't write women very well. I was very annoyed.

Female authors were still using male names when I was young, or they were neatly shoehorned into 'women's books' except for those few that men could always point at when the disparity was pointed out.

I think there have always been male writers, female writers. As a reader, I never picked up a book and said, 'Oh, I can't read this - it's about a male,' and set it back down.

One of the more interesting challenges I face when doing research for my novels is to trace the lives of women who are vital to the narrative and try my best to give them back their voices.