Robyn Davidson

You have to remember that I was an Australian girl of the Fifties and Sixties. For Australians at that time, it was imperative to get out of the country and discover the world.

After thirty years of being 'the camel lady,' believe me: One becomes inured to the spotlight.

I'd always loved writing, in the same way that I'd loved painting. I wouldn't have seen it as a career.

I have a naturally camp sensibility and a camp sense of humour. I love the icons that gay people love.

I love to write about Nabokov and also to think about him. I love his attitude that he is incomparable, his lofty judgments and general scorn of other writers - not all of them, of course.

Boston is an oasis in the desert, a place where the larger proportion of people are loving, rational and happy.