All families are psychotic. Everybody has basically the same family - it's just reconfigured slightly different from one to the next.

This was not a good idea coming home for Christmas. I'm too old. Years ago, coming back from schools or trips, I always expected some sort of new perspective or fresh insight about the family on returning. That doesn't happen anymore-the days of revelation about my parents, at least, are over... its time to move on. I think we'd all appreciate that.

You know, I really think that when God puts together families, he sticks his finger into the white pages and selects a group of people at random and then says to them all, 'Hey! You're going to spend the next seventy years together, even though you have nothing in common and don't even like each other. And, should you not feel yourself caring about any of this group of strangers, even for a second, you will just feel dreadful

If you write fiction, you have to love your characters. It's like your family. You don't have to like them, but you have to love them.

People are pretty forgiving when it comes to other people's families. The only family that ever horrifies you is your own.

It's very strange that most people don't care if their knowledge of their family history only goes back three generations.