Anything in literature, including memory, is second-hand.

You can't build a future if you don't have a past.

Whatever I read went under my skin. I almost devoured the literature, which became like a road to discovery.

Through writing, one experiences something different to what one experiences with the five senses one has because language is a different metier.

My dream life is just to go back to my job full-time. And be with my family. You know, regular dreams, common dreams that everyone has.

My family were from Jamaica.

I think - you know, the big trauma in my life, personally, was the fact that at 14, I was taken out of Poland unwittingly because my parents were divorced. Left the country - my mother left for England with her new husband. I wasn't even aware that she'd married him.

I had never thought about writing a novel. But I had two young kids, and I realized that if I could write a novel, I could work at home.