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Thrillers have been traditionally very masculine books; the women characters often rather decorative.

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

I think printed fiction is what women read.

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

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

It is difficult to get men to pick up a female author. Women will read men, but men won't read women.

My publisher, who was so good as a taster and editor, when she became a writer, lo and behold, it was all this feminine tosh.

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.

Sometimes female characters start out as the wife or girlfriend, but then I realize, 'No, she's the book,' and she becomes a main character. I surrender the book to her.