The biggest influence on my books was the fact that I had worked in a newspaper for so long. In a daily paper, you learn to write very quickly; there….

We're nothing if we're not loved. When you meet somebody who is more important to you than yourself, that has to be the most important thing..

When I was younger, I avoided exercise or anything strenuous. I didn't even enjoy walking. As I got older, I spent so much time marking books or sitt….

I never wanted to write. I just wrote letters home from a kibbutz in Israel to reassure my parents that I was still alive and well fed and having a g….

You say to yourself: 'What could people, in all these countries, find in my books?' and yet I think we're all the same, anywhere. Everybody is a hero….

If you write what you know about, you will always be on safe ground. I am very edgy and nervous about going into territories I know nothing about. Th….

I have been luckier than anyone I know or even heard of. I had a very happy childhood, a good education, I enjoyed working as a teacher, journalist a….

I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks..

My memory of my home was that it was very happy, and that there was more fun and life there than there was anywhere else..

She put her head down on the table and cried all the tears that she knew she should have cried in the past year and a half. But they weren't ready th….

You're much more believable if you talk in your own voice..

I didn't get excited by weight loss, and since I was already happy being fat, I couldn't see the point of it all. I'm 6 ft. and weigh about 18 st. or….

I've had a good life, full of more success and happiness than I ever expected..

The most important thing to realize is that everyone is capable of telling a story..

I'm particularly fond of boned chicken breasts with a little garlic under the flesh and cooked in a casserole for 40 minutes with a jar of olives, so….

I remember watching myself on video and being so disappointed with myself because I was constantly moving around the place and laughing. I thought, '….

I once got a huge, expensive flower arrangement from a person I didn't like, who sent it out of pure guilt. It had a hideous bird-of-paradise in the ….

In my stories, whenever there's somebody wonderful and charming and bright and intelligent, that's me!.

An English journalist called Michael Viney told me when I was 25, that I would write well if I cared a lot what I was writing about. That worked. I w….

I do try to live every day as if it were my last, and it has worked for me so far..

On the first day of school, my father told me I'd be the most popular girl and everyone would love me and want to be my friend. It wasn't so, but it ….