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I'm a great believer in research. I have to know about a place before I write a story that is set in that place.

I never write about a place I don't know.

It's hard to say if actual places really affect the way you write.

But it's the particularity of a place, the physical experience of being in a place, that makes it onto the page. That's why I don't just do library research. I very rarely write about somewhere I haven't been.

Wherever you write is supposed to be a little bit of a refuge, a place where you can get away from the world. The more closed in you are, the more you're forced back on your own imagination.

I don't believe in writing anything that I don't know about or haven't researched about personally. I like to transport the reader to places, and in order to do that I have to do the research.

Every part of the country has its story to tell, so I'm always looking for the next place to be.

New Zealand is the only country I know well enough to write about. It can sometimes lead to complications.

In this day and age, you can write anywhere in the world. You can really live anywhere and have the same career.

Though it may not seem like it, I never try to write about a place, per se; it's always, first and last, about story. Story is everything. Story and a bit of attitude.