“A great writer picks up on those things that matter. It’s almost like their radar is attuned to the most significant moments.”

“There may be significant things to learn about people by looking at what annoys them most.”

“There are things that are not spoken about in polite society. Very quickly in most conversations you'll reach a moment where someone goes, 'Oh, that's a bit heavy,' or 'Eew, disgusting.' And literature is a place where that stuff goes; where people whisper to each other across books, the writer to the reader. I think that stops you feeling lonely – in the deeper sense, lonely.”

“It's hard loving those who don't much like themselves: "If you're so great, why would you think I'm so great.”

“It is perhaps when our lives are at their most problematic that we are likely to be most receptive to beautiful things.”

“Most of what makes a book 'good' is that we are reading it at the right moment for us.”

“Those who divorce aren't necessarily the most unhappy, just those neatly able to believe their misery is caused by one other person.”