'I'm suspicious of writing straight to screen. The words seem flat, floating off into an insubstantial medium. '

I'm suspicious of writing straight to screen. The words seem flat, floating off into an insubstantial medium. I don't like the ersatz respectability a computer lends to sentences, like crude mood music in a movie scene. It's too easy to be tricked.

'Perhaps I turn to nature not for inspiration for writing, but for escape from it? A kind of mindfulness in action.'

Perhaps I turn to nature not for inspiration for writing, but for escape from it? Nature undoubtedly restores me, and feeds me, and often helps me find a kind of meaning in the world. A kind of mindfulness in action.

'There is no typical day. It's various. It changes and evolves and is likely to keep doing so. This is what I love about writing.'

There is no typical day. It's various. It changes and evolves and is likely to keep doing so. This is what I love about writing; the variety, the unpredictability. It's also, of course, what I hate.

'My secondary modern was a fantastically mixed school, with pupils from all over the world and of every religion; my school photograph is testament to that.'

My secondary modern was a fantastically mixed school, with pupils from all over the world and of every religion; my school photograph is testament to that. That was the best education I received, so it wasn't all bad.

'I read every Arthur C. Clarke book the Zodiac Bookshop had to offer. Science at school was dull, but what I learned in Clarke novels kept me interested. '

I read every Arthur C. Clarke book the Zodiac Bookshop had to offer. Science at school was dull, but what I learned in Clarke novels kept me interested. Laser beams would be invisible in space without dust to scatter their rays into your eyes...

'At the last minute, a prison officer warns me that if my questions elicit further evidence, the prisoner will be tried again.'

At the last minute, a prison officer warns me that if my questions elicit further evidence, the prisoner will be tried again. Sweat trickles down my back as I lock eyes with him. I can almost hear the crew behind me hold their breath.

'With every piece I read, the reasons for rejection did not just stare me in the face, they jumped up and down and waved their knickers in the air.'

With every piece I read, the reasons for rejection did not just stare me in the face, they jumped up and down, waved their knickers in the air, and had my toes curling with embarrassment. How could I have missed the obvious?

'The final process of writing is performance. In redrafting, there are still variants you are weighing up; reading the poem at a poetry event forces you to make final decisions.'

The final process of writing is performance. In redrafting, there are still variants you are weighing up, and reading the poem at a poetry event forces you to make those final decisions. Some of these are made at the microphone, and some are surprising.

'When your father tells you how he ran home from the cinema in the Blitz, to discover his house had been bombed, make him tell you how he felt. '

When your father tells you how he ran home from the cinema in the Blitz, to discover his house had been bombed, make him tell you how he felt. Right now, you think there is always tomorrow, but stories can die too, if they're never told.

'If your manuscript doesn't reach the commissioning editor when you said it would, he or she will read one of two things into that: A. I am now rushing to get this finished; B. I am not.'

If your manuscript doesn't reach the commissioning editor when you said it would, he or she will read one of two things into that fact: A. I am now rushing to get this finished, so it won't be as good as if it hadn't been rushed; B. I am not rushing.