I think graphic novels are closer to prose than film, which is a really different form.

I have two children. They are more fun than anything in the world, and it's more immediate fun than the hard slog of writing.

A man who thinks he has a higher purpose can do terrible things, even to those he professes to love.

There's a real emphasis on being witty in Scotland, even in crime novels.

I think the negative traits are what makes us love other human beings, the foibles and the flaws.

My upbringing was middle-class but my parents' families were both working-class so I had this odd combination of working-class background but in a privileged position.

I'm always represented as a bit of a class warrior - a bit Down With Men and Down With Middle-Class People. Whereas I'm actually very fond of men and am middle-class. I even went to boarding school in Perthshire.