LAUREN BEUKES

Fiction is about telling a good story, first and foremost. But of course, everything I'm interested in or angry about leaks into my writing, from art to violence against women.

What I love about collaborating is that you're working with other minds that work differently to yours.

Being a journalist, being exposed to the world, to social injustice, to intolerance, growing up here, under apartheid, benefitting from that, has all shaped who I am and what my passions are, and of course that's going to come through in my writing.

Twitter is amazing. I advertised for the position of research assistant on Twitter, and both of my researchers came from there.

I've always loved Japanese legend, anime and manga.

It's hard to get justice in the real world. It's possible in fiction.

I did a lot of research on real serial killers, and they're not Hannibal Lecters. They're cruel men who are given the opportunity to do something terrible, and a lot of the time it's about impotence. They feel powerless in the real world.

I moved to New York for love, and it was a disaster, in 2000. And then I had American friends who had lived in South Africa, and they were in Chicago. They said, 'Come and spend some time with us, and we'll help you get over it.'

I've seen so many screw-ups of representations of South Africa, and it makes me so angry every time.

World needs more angels, even plywood ones.

Memory is curated. All this paraphernalia you collect to ward off forgetting

You have to get up pretty early in the morning to invent the news.

So are you an inmate or a rubbernecker?" she asks. "Rubbernecker," I answer without hesitation. "You?" "I'm a screw. Or on staff, anyway. Used to be an inmate. Repeat offender. Crimes against my body. Puking sickness followed by heroin, which led to more puking sickness." I'd be surprised at her forthrightness, but that's addicts for you. The twelve steps crack 'em open and then they can't shut up.

The biggest fairy tale is that justice works because it doesn't.

I really wanted to believe that there were these magic celestial bodies that would direct my life, tell me what to do, and it turns out it's not stars, it's some bits of screwy DNA. I'm just meat with faulty programming.

Shakespeare would have it wrong these days. It's not the world that's the stage - it's social media, where you're trying to put on a show. The rest of your life is rehearsals, prepping in the wings to be fabulous online.

Traffic in Joburg is like the democratic process. Every time you think it's going to get moving and take you somewhere, you hit another jam.

People don't want novelty - they want the reassurance of familiarity. No-one wants to be challenged, no-one wants to have their minds blown. There is an insatiable appetite for affirmation.

The future is not as loud as war, but it is relentless. It has a terrible fury all its own.

Fashion is only different skins for different flavours of you.

Only other people can make you feel real.

There are patterns because we try to find them. A desperate attempt at order because we can't face the terror that it might all be random.

Can't reinvent the wheel. But you can put your own spin on it.

The problem with snapshots is that they replace actual memories. You lock down the moment and it becomes all there is of it.

There are only so many plots in the world. It's how they unfold that makes them interesting.