I remember manners, that's when people are scared to make other persons mad.

Maybe I’m a human, but I’m a me-and-Ma as well.

I've always been religiously inclined, but it doesn't come up in most of my books.

[E]verywhere I'm looking at kids, adults mostly don't seem to like them, not even the parents do. They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don't want to actually play with them, they'd rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there's a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn't even hear.

For all the books in his possession, he still failed to read the stories written plain as day in the faces of the people around him.

Now that I've got a way in [to the industry] - because it can feel a bit like, "How can I possibly write a film?" - but now that I've got at least some experience in the film world, I'd absolutely love to do it again.

The great thing about a short story is that it doesn't have to trawl through someone's whole life; it can come in glancingly from the side.