Ah wonder if anybody this side of the Atlantic has ever bought a baseball bat with playing baseball in mind.

Nothing is covered adequately by the BBC. The BBC has become the biggest disappointment - they're just so terrified. And in a way it's not their fault: the parties have used them as a political football.

Basically, particularly in Britain, it's a hegemonic thing that people who write tend to come from the leisure classes. They can afford the time and the books.

I can see why the Russians love Robert Burns, I think that Russians and Koreans have a very similar outlook to Scots.

I think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills, a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to find information.

It's interesting - you had [George] Osborne crying at [Margaret Tatcher] funeral. She would have been the first person, she would have read these tears as being as fake as the smiles of his predecessors when they knifed her in the back.

Just lock myself in a room, stop answering emails, stop answering the phone and I come out with something.