“The way out of the mind is never through yourself, it s through other people”

Q The lesson I learned from your new novel, The Midnight Library, is that kindness helps us take the life we have and make it better, as shown through the main character, Nora, who had a difficult life. Was that your intention?

A Yes. I’ve always felt that. My own experience of mental illness – depression and anxiety – is that they wrap you up inside yourself. If your leg is on fire, it’s inevitable that you’re going to concentrate on your leg being on fire so, similarly, if you’ve got issues in your head, it’s inevitable that you may come across as selfish and self-absorbed.

In [a memoir exploring mental health], I wrote that the way out of the mind is never through yourself, it’s through other people. Kindness