People think my work is therapeutic. I don't see it that way. It's not like I'm saving money from a weekly therapy visit by writing down my life.
The Nobel Prize has given me, for the first time in my life, the feeling that my literature could be appreciated on an international level.
Although religion was around me my whole life I never felt it was forced upon me. It is my centring, my grounding, the soul of me. I feel I'm nothing without it.
I just broke up with my boyfriend, so I'm officially single. But one thing I find unbelievably annoying is all these guys in my life who want to save me.
One of my fantasies in my life has been that I was granted access with a camera to go back in time, and to film the actual campaign of Alexander crossing into India through Iran and Persia.
I have my own worries and concerns and frustrations, but I'm doing something I love to do. My wife and kids are in good shape. What is there not to be happy about?
I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
I fed my yak on my spare Cadbury chocolate 21,0000ft up Everest. It was a blonde, very sweet female yak. I made it my pet after that.
The fictive structure, my work, my imagination, my books are about the details, the huge construction about culture, Islamic culture or modern Turkey. They're all intertwined.
Mostly, I spend my time being a mother to my two children, working in my organic garden, raising masses of sweet peas, being passionately involved in conservation, recycling and solar energy.
I usually make sure that my stories are from Africa or my own background so as to highlight the cultural background at the same time as telling the story.
I take conscious breaks for myself 'cause I like to rejuvenate and get my creative juices flowing. I also like to take my time with my creativity; I think it's important.
I used to be so hard on myself. So hard on myself. Just my own worst critic to the nth degree. Absolutely undermining my confidence in every moment. Bad tape in my head all the time.
You wouldn't think it would but my parents were really balanced about that. When it came time for me to be out of the house and out on my own they were very supportive.
I had three stages of knowing Wellington Mara. He was my boss for a long time and he was a father figure. And finally, as we got older, he was my friend.
I saw my father preach in Madison Square Garden, and I was a little embarrassed, I think, the first time I heard him preach. That's my father up there, and I kind of slid down in my chair.
I've had a lot of books rejected in my time. My first novel, which didn't get published, was, with hindsight, crashingly dull.
My tutors at drama school commended and criticised my use of comedy in my acting for a long time at drama school. They said I had a tendency to somehow perform the most tragic of scenes in a slightly flippant way.
I'd rather spend my leisure time doing what some people call my work and I call my fun.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
When I was a child, a lot of my time was spent in Scotland because my mother's Scottish, and we used to go up to Ayrshire and visit relations in a place called Dalry.
