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I started writing after the death of my grandfather - memories, poems, etc. It was very personal; for years I did not share my writing with anyone.

I am writing more than I have ever done. My life has come back to me in the most extraordinary way.

I've been writing, in one way or another, for as long as I can remember.

Writing, for me, was a feat of self-preservation. If I did not do it, I would die. So I did it. Obstinacy, not talent, saved my life.

Having a memoir and a retrospective of your work running almost simultaneously when you're still alive does feel a bit posthumous.

For several decades, I believed it was necessary to be extraordinary if you wanted to write, and since I wasn't, I gave up my ambition and settled down to a life of reading.

There's more than enough in the world I am currently writing about to last for several lifetimes of writing.

After my husband died, I could not write much - I could not concentrate. I was too exhausted most of the time even to contemplate writing. But I did take notes - not for fiction, but for a journal, or diary, of this terrible time. I did not think that I would ever survive this interlude.

For a writer, life is always too short to write. I will just try my best during what remains of my life.

All through my writing life, I've had this impulse to write autobiographical works.