As a writer, I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.

What do you think dignity's all about?' The directness of the inquiry did, I admit, take me rather by surprise. 'It's rather a hard thing to explain in a few words, sir,' I said. 'But I suspect it comes down to not removing one's clothing in public.

Now naturally, like many of us, I have a reluctance to change too much of the old ways.

I half closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field and gradually get larger until I'd see it was Tommy, and he'd wave, and maybe even call.

When you become a parent, or a teacher, you turn into a manager of this whole system. You become the person controlling the bubble of innocence around a child, regulating it.

What interests me is the surprising enormous extent to which most people accept the fate that's been given to them, and find some dignity.

If you look at my last songs and first short stories, there is a real connection between them.