If you rewrite a paragraph fifty times and forty-nine of them are terrible, that's fine; you only need to get it right once.

I'd always been fascinated by archaeology; it was my original career plan as a kid.

Most animals are pragmatic about mysteries: If they run across something they don't understand, all they care about is whether it's edible and whether it's dangerous. Humans, on the other hand, are drawn to the mystery for its own sake.

With 'Broken Harbour,' a third of the way through, I worked it out and had to go back and bloody rewrite.