All we need to do, reader or writer, from first line to final page, is be as open as a book, and be alive to the life in language - on all its levels.

The proper word for me," Robin Goodman says, "is me.

Do you come to art to be comforted, or do you come to art to be re-skinned?

The whole point is, we can forget. It’s important that we forget some things. Otherwise we’d go round the world carrying a hodload of stuff we just don’t need.

It is important to know the stories and histories of things, even if all we know is that we don't know.

A game one of my sisters will play with me in my first year of being alive is called Good Baby, Bad Baby. This consists of being told I am a good baby until I smile and laugh, then being told I am a bad baby until I burst into tears. This training will stand me in good stead all through my life.

Fashion is fickle, and I was published because I was fashionable. Because I was gay.