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.

We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.

Even at the time, I realised this couldn't be right, that this interpretation didn't fit with the rest of the lyrics. But that wasn't an issue with me. The song was about what I said, and I used to listen to it again and again, on my own, whenever I got the chance.

One need hardly dwell on the catastrophic possibility of uttering a bantering remark only to discover it wholly inappropriate

If you were a boy and a girl and you were in love with each other, really, properly in love, and if you could show it, then the people who run Hailsham, they sorted it out for you. They sorted it out so you could have a few years together before you began your donations.

I don't think it's any fun, even if you are one of the most respected authors in the world like Margaret Atwood, to keep being nominated and not win.

I started as a songwriter and wanted to be like Leonard Cohen. I've always seen my stories as enlarged songs.