Love isn't about when you first meet. It's about the many, many years you spend together, when you're trying to keep that flame burning.

If I'm alone at home, I get increasingly restless, bothered by the idea that I'm missing some crucial encounter out there somewhere. But if I'm left by myself in someone else's place, I often find myself a nice sense of peace engulfing me. I love sinking into an unfamiliar sofa with whatever book happens to be lying nearby.

What he wanted was not just to hear about Hailsham, but to remember Hailsham, just like it had been his own childhood. He knew he was close to completing and so that's what he was doing: getting me to describe things to him, so they'd really sink in, so that maybe during those sleepless nights, with the drugs and the paint and the exhaustion, the line would blur between what were my memories and what were his.

People were incredibly kind to our family and went out of their way to help.

If you go to Tokyo, I think it becomes very obvious that there's this almost seamless mixture of popular culture and Japanese traditional culture.

I have the feeling of this completely alternative person I should have become. There was another life that I might have had, but I’m having this one.

I've always had a great fondness for English detective fiction such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers.