Sadie Jones

“I remember people saying: 'You look funny, your hair is so black, you have a flat nose,' but I didn't think of it being racism, and I still don't. But there was a sense of difference, of being an outsider.”

“I try not to picture a reader when I'm writing. It's like trying to make a great table but not picturing anybody sitting at it.”

“It's not a romance, it's a love story.”

“I love writing on trains. The joy of being a writer is it's all in your head; you don't need materials apart from the laptop. It's like taking your work home with you, so you can feel grounded in your own insane writerly realities wherever you are.”

“My father is from Jamaica, and as a child I spent many holidays there. I remember the weight and drenching wetness of that hot rain, as I experienced it in my childhood, not only for itself, but for what it represented for me.”

“Remove all the traffic lights, yellow lines, one-way systems and road markings, and let blissful anarchy prevail. I imagine it would produce a kind of harmony.”

“I like to come into my workspace and feel it's a living environment and not frozen, which is why I often change or add to the pictures on the wall.”

“If I think about the writers I love or might be influenced by, I can't write at all, so I pretend there aren't any.”

“When I'm writing, I spend all my time in The Grocer on Elgin buying ready-made meals; I think they are the only reason my husband and kids haven't left me.”