I think to be writer you have to enjoy being alone. I was a loner as a teenager and was always drawn to characters in books and films who were at the fringes.

The city buildings in the distance are holding up the sky, it seems.

I thought what if death is more like thinking, well, war is like the boss at your shoulder, constantly wanting more, wanting more, wanting more, and then that gave me the idea that Death is weary, he's fatigued, and he's haunted by what he sees humans do to each other because he's on hand for all of our great miseries.

You'll have days of complete lack of faith in your abilities. But you have to keep coming back. That's when you know you're a writer - when you take the failures and appear at the desk again, over and over again.

It kills me sometimes, how people die.

I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.

A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.