I think literary theory has not been terribly good for English studies in a while. It's not that theory isn't interesting, but it isn't about books, or the idiosyncrasies and complexities of putting language together.

I don't only write about English literature; I also write about chaos theory and... ants. I can understand ants.

In England, everyone believes if you think, then you don't feel. But all my novels are about joining together thinking and feeling.

I think my characters with my fingers, I think my characters with my guts. But when I say I think them, that is what I do, I feel them with the sympathetic neurons and I work out with my brain what it is that I am trying to write about, or I can't do it.

I think vestigially there's a synesthete in me, but not like a real one who immediately knows what colour Wednesday is.

I sort of mind living in a time when most of the literature is terribly personal. I suppose it's because I grew up on a love of history, philosophy, science and religion, but not to think too much about yourself.