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I've always been in love with language. My favorite book is a dictionary. I have always loved words.

There are things I read doing research, and there are certain books and writers I just love to read. There are books of Brian Morten's that I love, for instance. There's a wonderful book by an Australian writer named Helen Garner called 'The Children's Bach,' and I just love the way she uses language in it.

I read everything. I'll read a John Grisham novel, I'll sit and read a whole book of poems by Maya Angelou, or I'll just read some Mary Oliver - this is a book that was given to me for Christmas. No particular genre. And I read in French, and I read in German, and I read in English. I love to see how other people use language.

I was also in love with the English language.

I've always loved words. I ate up all the books I could get my hands on, and when I couldn't get books, I read candy wrappers and labels on cereal and toothpaste boxes.

I'm very interested in language because it reflects our obsessions and ways of conceptualising the world.

My love of reading and the English language is something given to me by my parents, and I've passed it on to my children.

My mother had been a Latin teacher, and she was always very fascinated with words. She and I shared books and responded to them.

I could never see a book written in a foreign language without the most ardent desire to read it.

Mythology and history are my passion. I grew up in a religious family and learnt about our scriptures and philosophies. It's the language I'm comfortable with.