David Holdaway was my stage name. I was an actor for about eight years in the '90s. I had to change my name because there was another David Nicholls, and I thought if I changed it to my mother's name, she'd be touched.

Welcome to the graveyard of ambition.

but they had also settled into the maddening familiarity of friendship; maddening for her at least.

Read a book at the right age and it will stay with you for life.

Once you decide not to worry about that stuff anymore, dating and relationships and love and all that, it's like you're free to get on with real life.

You can live your whole life not realizing that what you're looking for is right in front of you.

Most of the books and films I love walk a knife edge between romance and cynicism, and I wanted 'One Day' to stay on that line. I wanted it to be moving, but without being manipulative.