JOANNE HARRIS

I think everybody has a secret life.

I'm quite an untidy person in a lot of ways. But order makes me happy. I have to have a clear desk and a tidy desktop, with as few visual distractions as possible. I don't mind sound distractions, but visual ones freak me out.

I tend to write about more than one generation because as a child I had contact with more than one generation; it was normal to be around older people.

I have an advanced degree in procrastination and another one in paranoia.

Of course I didn't pioneer the use of food in fiction: it has been a standard literary device since Chaucer and Rabelais, who used food wonderfully as a metaphor for sensuality.

I'm incapable of hiding my feelings when I'm around someone I don't like.

I think if you are an outsider then you are an outsider always.

Anything based on ancient texts is difficult for a modern reader to get their head around.

I dream a lot, in colour and in sound and scent. Quite a few of my stories have come from dreams.

The interesting thing about the Internet is that it has created a kind of alternative circle of friends for people.

I'm insatiably curious.

My heroes and heroines are often unlikely people who are dragged into situations without meaning to become involved, or people with a past that has never quite left them. They are often isolated, introspective people, often confrontational or anarchic in some way, often damaged or secretly unhappy or incomplete.

I have a tendency to pick up my own challenges. The more difficult something it is, the more I want to try it.

Online communities are an expression of loneliness.

A little tantrum in real life seems so much bigger online.

I'm not sure I believe in the whole 'ghost-afterlife' thing, but I think places are marked by people who have been there.

The great thing about books is that you can end with a question mark.

I've nothing against kids reading anything they please, but I do have a problem with pink books for girls and black books for boys.

I was convinced I'd hate Twitter - but I've come to like it very much. I use it mostly to keep in touch with friends and colleagues I wish I could see more often - I sometimes feel a little isolated living in Yorkshire, and it's nice to have the contact.

I have an English identity and a French identity. When I'm in France, I'm more outgoing. And the French part of me cooks, whereas the English part of me writes.

For me, the magic of Hawaii comes from the stillness, the sea, the stars.

One of the things that writing has taught me is that fiction has a life of its own. Fictional places are sometimes more real than the view from our bedroom window. Fictional people can sometimes become as close to us as our loved ones.

I don't listen to music when I'm writing, but I often do when I'm reworking, editing or when I need to relax.

No one should be so precious as to refuse criticism of their work. But to respect an opinion, we have to know that it was given honestly and with proper thought.

I'm politically inclined towards the left, but I don't like to be in anyone's gang; I'm a bit of a loose cannon.