I never grew up thinking the goal in life was to be a millionaire. All the way through college, I had a part-time job. I worked hard to get the things that you need at that age.

Don't force yourself to write. Some people can write a novel in a few months, whereas for others it can take over a year. I'm lucky to be one of the former - but, even so, if I'm not in the mood to write, I won't. I'll go off, do something else and come back to it when I'm ready.

Although when I start a novel I know how it will begin and end, I like to let the people within the story take me on a journey between those points without having a fixed plan.

I want a character to wake up one day and feel like, 'I can face it'. That, to me, is happy. I want the characters to rescue themselves, though you use the relationships you have, to make you strong enough to be able to do that.

The idea of being a novelist is really romantic, but it's kind of the same as being president of the United States - it's not gonna happen.

Marriage, for whatever reason, has always both interested and terrified me.

My marriage to David Bailey ended one morning in 1983, while he was away on a photo-shoot.

If we did not look to marriage as the principal source of happiness, fewer marriages would end in tears.