Lynn Coady

When you're not sure your anger is justified, the thing to do is ask yourself exactly where it's coming from.

No one expects the doormat to stand upright, shake itself off, and amble down the street to seek its own happiness.

You can catch a scent in the wind - an idea, or a concept - and follow it. You can delve into your subconscious and see what happens, in a way you just can't when you're writing a novel.

I would've done anything to work with Satyajit Ray.

It's good to like yourself, and that only comes from hard work, from doing. But vanity is dangerous; it can trip you badly.

U.S. soldiers, with whom I now have more than a passing acquaintance, joke that they track my movements in order to know where they will be deployed next.