Rose Tremain — English Novelist born on August 02, 1943,

Rose Tremain CBE FRSL is an English author, and current Chancellor of the University of East Anglia... (wikipedia)

Life is not a dress rehearsal.
The process of rewriting is enjoyable, because you're not in that existential panic when you don't have a novel at all.
Perhaps, all writers walk such a line. In general - as we all do in our dreams - I believe I put something of myself into all the characters in my novels, male as well as female.
When you've finished a piece of work you've had a kind of love affair with it.
I think I'm drawn to writing about something which feels intense and important.