I was at the tail end of the family. The next brother along was already seven years older than me. I remember growing up by myself, playing games by myself.

Every great narrative is at least two narratives, if not more - the thing that is on the surface and then the things underneath which are invisible.

I had a job, I got ill, I left the job to get better, and while I was getting better, I wrote some stories. I sent them to some publishers and the fifth one who replied said they'd take them. Then they went bankrupt. Then that bankrupt publisher got bought by a bigger firm. Story: in the end is the beginning, and in the beginning is the end.

I have thought for a long time that the way my clothes hang on me is more important than me inside them.

The head has its confines. The head’s got those all right, and the heart. The heart has its reasons.

Happy is what you realize you are a fraction of a second before it's too late.

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