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" There's some really good stuff in the way I was brought up. There's some really rubbish stuff as well. "

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" If something is a problem, it's all right to admit it. "

" Claude Cahun is a fascinating artist - one of the few women to be part of the surrealist movement, she and her partner Suzanne Malherbe took on men's names and made artworks that investigated female identity long before 'The Second Sex' or Cindy Sherman. "

" People who were always hardbodies love that competitive style of team-sports activity: they come up with timers and fitness contests and personal bests. But for the vast majority of people, competition in exercise is not fun. It's no fun to compete if you know you can never win. "

" Just as readers often turn into writers, novel-writers often become novel-reviewers. "

" The truth is, none of us is OK, not really. The best, most dear, most thoughtful and engaged and open and feminist men in my life have occasionally come out with some statement that's made me gasp. Then again, so have almost all the women. "

" Personal trainers, however nice, give me PE teacher flashbacks. "

" For years, I looked down on my mother for shopping at Asda, and now I feel very ashamed of it. "

" I am a geek, and proud of it. "

" I had a year of panic attacks. I was feeling really pressured, like I could never do it again. With a first novel, you put things on hold because it takes so much mental energy and self-belief to keep on writing. "

" While 'Iron Man' is tremendous fun, it's another reminder of the pressure on all of us to make ourselves increasingly perfect and a little less human. And that is something it is important to resist. "

" I have no wish to offend, but I do think that holy cows need challenging. "

" I've got the brain for systems and a head for figures. "

" Attending a book group is always a salutary experience for a writer. There's no guarantee that the people there will have enjoyed your book, and, as anyone who has taken part in a book group will know, half the fun is in ripping a book you haven't liked to shreds. "

" The thing about having true fans, it seems, is that they remain loyal to their idea of what the work meant to them. And that might make them more exacting than the toughest studio executive or publishing boss. "

" When a marriage founders, this may well be cause for tremendous sadness, but it's not a failure of spirit or character. People change, their goals and dreams alter, their ideas of themselves grow, or they just meet someone they like better. "

" Computer games can be works of art and literature - they're still developing. The stories they can tell, and the experiences they provide, are increasingly sophisticated and glorious. "

" I hated sports at school. Almost everyone did. "

" As someone who went to school in the '70s and '80s, I can't say that I noticed much of a 'medals for all' culture myself. "

" My childhood was full of shocks and alarums, and I had to work a long time to make a life that pleases me. "

" I don't think I have any particular problem with God. "

" The politics of fear are always the same. They are easily recognisable in retrospect. They are easy to acquiesce in at the time. "

" Competitive sports may be where exercise becomes 'fun' for children who are good at it, but for those who are less talented, it is where exercise becomes not only physically demanding but also emotionally painful and socially humiliating. "

" I really hope that men read 'The Power' and watch 'The Handmaid's Tale' and read 'The Handmaid's Tale.' "

" I got my first library card, for Hendon Library in north London, when I was two years old. "

" It's hard to describe why one room and not another feels right for writing. Of course you have to train yourself to be able to write anywhere, but it's nice to feel that each book has a place that belongs to it, where it's home. "

" We all know that the desire for perfection can get in the way of authenticity and enjoyment; it's the same with games. There's a completist part to many of us that can't rest until we reach the perfect 100% finish point. "

" Our culture tends to denigrate things that are associated with women. It's OK for women to wear trousers, for example, but not OK for men to wear skirts. "

" After the novel was published, I came to feel that I couldn't call myself Orthodox anymore. It's so patriarchal, anti-women, anti-gay. There was something about writing 'Disobedience'... it felt like I had put it all in the book. I had done my best by it, recorded what it meant for me. I felt I was done. "

" I feel powerful when I'm onstage talking to an audience. I like communicating; it feels like my calling in the world. Knowing what you're meant to be doing with your life is pretty bloody powerful. "

" I wish that positions of power dependent on education were as open to abused children, poor children, working-class children as they are to the children of the rich and successful. I really wish that were true. "