Jane Fallon

Grandchildren are the Furbies of the offspring world. They're cute, they're funny, you can play with them and then put them away when they start to get on your nerves.

I am too much of a worrier. I'm the person who thinks about calling round all the hospitals when someone is five minutes later than they said they would be.

I was never one of those little girls who played with baby dolls and picked names for her firstborn. I was playing in the mud with my dog, doing backflips, and climbing trees.

I've never regretted not having kids.

I think it makes you a good listener about other people's relationships when you haven't got that much to say about your own.

I've never wanted a baby. I've always wanted a cat.

I have always had a bee in my bonnet about being seen to do things for myself.

I'm not a girly girl at all.

I think a lot of people assume you need to be born into a special creative family to have a career as a writer. So I never thought it would happen for me.

My whole life, I've wanted to be a novelist.

My idea of the perfect day is nothing to do and a great book on the go.

I remember watching a 'Big Brother' contestant saying that she wanted to be a footballer's wife. I thought, 'What is the world coming to?'

Even when I was a kid, I was never interested in any of that marriage or baby stuff.

One thing that was drummed into me when I was younger is that you have to make your own way in life, that you mustn't expect anyone else to support you.

Bizarrely, I've been called selfish for not having children. Surely it's more selfish to have a child when you don't really want a child?

I've got no desire to be famous myself.

I spent my whole childhood trying to find places to be on my own. I used to sit on the water tank in the attic or in the dog's kennel. I was quite a strange child.

I've always been very clear: I never want to be known just as somebody's girlfriend.

I suppress stress to the point where it will force its way through my skin in the form of a large angry pimple because that's the only channel it has.

I've always been a glass-half-empty sort of person.

I've always worked out, but running pushed bits of me harder than anything else I had ever done.

As an adult, I had to accept that I was not a natural distance runner. Anything more than about 400 metres had me gasping and wheezing like a broken accordion.

My dad used to cut out newspaper ads and post them to me in the hope I'd get a proper job.

There's something lovely about writing a book, doing what you want. I love the solitariness of it.

People always say, 'My family is so normal,' and when you poke into them, they never are.

Everyone has bits of dysfunction in their families, but I actually have a very nice, happy one.