I always worry that I'm a dilettante: I know something about lots of things but don't have exhaustive knowledge of much. Take dance music: I like enough of it and its history to be able to say a word or two about this or that record, but I'm nobody's authority. I couldn't name more than a couple of good drum'n'bass acts, and I have no idea what's big in the dance world right now.

I just started going to shows. I don't know how submerged I am: I feel guilty that I don't get out more, but I really like being inside the house.

You learn to present dark things without including their ability to harm, treasuring them for what they are.

People say friends don't destroy one another. What do they know about friends?

It's an important moment as a reader, I think, when you can forget the question of whether you need to know what happened. Some people really want hard explanations. I'm the other way. I like mysteries. I don't want to frustrate people. I don't want people to feel like they got no answers, but I want to approach the mystery and sit with it.

I enjoy hearing people who are good at their instruments and who've found a distinctive voice.

Diagnoses exist to help get people services they need - but there's no such thing as mental illness. We're all mentally ill.