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But at the same time, I have trouble keeping things out of books, which is why I don't write short stories because they turn into novels.

When I'm writing a novel, I'm usually just trying to write about things that are interesting to me.

I often turn to my books when my own writing is having a hard time.

When you are writing a book, it feels as if you are simply concentrating on the world of the book and that whatever is happening in your personal life is outside the room, as it were. But maybe that's just the way you have to talk to yourself to make it possible.

My book has a lot of parts of my life that people don't know about.

I'm spectacularly disorganised. I wrote my latest book in seven different notebooks scattered throughout my house.

When I write, I get glimpses into future novels.

I'm really such a bumbler! Writing fiction is like arranging furniture in a dark room. I can't see what I'm doing. I grope for the right words. I bump against the wrong words and stumble and stub my toe and curse and keep trying to guess what belongs in the space.

There's always a bit of fiction in everything that I write.

The act of writing is a way of tricking yourself into revealing something that you would never consciously put into the world. Sometimes I'm shocked by the deeply personal things I've put into books without realizing it.