Even if people do wrong, we're social animals, so what can we do about stopping them doing the same things in future? Saying people are 'bad' or 'evil' is just an unwillingness to engage; an unwillingness to try to empathise. That sanctimonious attitude doesn't help anyone

I love Mikhail Bulgakov. He is very original and takes the story to unexpected places. I didn't realise political writing could be so funny.

To have a very strong opinion all the time is corrosive to a person's intellect. It becomes your default position.

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

Novelisation doesn't imply the truth. Readers are sophisticated enough to know that.

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