The Book of Air and Shadows' was born during a conference with an intellectual property lawyer on a particular afternoon in November of 2003.

But it turns out that people who are grounded and secure don't change much under stress. That's what being grounded means.

It's part of what we call the Shadow, all the dark parts of us we can't face. It's the thing that, if we don't deal with it, eventually poisons our lives.

But there's the paradox of fiction - why do you cry when a fake character dies? It's the basis of art. You engage with people who don't exist and care about them as you would your friends and relatives.

Does it matter, when you read, if the person who wrote still lives?

Professors go batty too, perhaps more often than other people, although owing to their profession, their madness is less often remarked.

As a matter of fact I had a terribly traumatic childhood. But afterward I sort of reraised myself.