Everything I know I imagine everyone else knows as well. And then everything that everyone else knows I imagine they know on top of what I know, so I….

You can't do science in a novel, but you can do philosophy. Or, if you're really lucky, you can manage to pose a question in such a way that other pe….

I wonder if the reason I tend to say yes to everything is because I deeply believe that I can survive anything..

What folly takes light through ether to each eye from every horizon..

For other people, love is like some rare orchid that can only grow in one place under a certain set of conditions. For me it's like bindweed. It grow….

Homeopathy seemed . . . both mathematical and poetic..

You tell them what a happy ending consists of, which is always individual success. You tell them that nothing irrational exists in this world, which ….

I always got a bit pissed off with those broadsheet sceptics who make their living being passionately angry about homeopathy, God, synchronicity or w….

I hate stereotypes and I hate cliche..

Some writers, notably Anton Chekov, argue that all characters must be admirable, because once we've looked at anyone deeply enough and understood the….

I think about stories and their logic and wonder if there can be any such thing as simply "there is a book..

If something wants to be a story, it will be..

It's not even a question of whether the universe is meaningful or meaningless. It's in what way could it be meaningful, or in what way, if it was mea….

I'm a great believer in gathering together all your obsessions and seeing if you can make a novel out of them..

One of the biggest problems for beginning writers is this need to over-explain..

People make events into stories. Stories give events meaning..

Honesty and authenticity are a big deal for me..

So if we're all quarks and electrons ..." he begins. What?" We could make love and it would be nothing more than quarks and electrons rubbing togethe….

Most people would look at an animal in a cage and instinctively feel that it should be set free. . . . It's a dangerous world out there, filled with ….

Over to my left is the big grey wall in front of the church. Are we the Thoughts of God? a poster asks. No, I realise. It's the reverse..

My novels are high concept. I guess big ideas interest me more than, say, the minutiae of domestic life..