Always write your ideas down however silly or trivial they might seem. Keep a notebook with you at all times.

There's a mouse in here with me. He's sitting there in the light of the lamp, looking up at me. He seems as surprised to see me as I am to see him. There he goes. I can hear him still, scurrying about somewhere under the hayrick. I think he's gone now. I hope he comes back. I miss him already.

What's really good is that there are people making stories and writing them and the vast majority never see the light of day and it doesn't matter a fig.

Wars become history all too soon and are forgotten all too soon as well, before the lessons can be learned.

Like most writers, I sit in a room and scribble a story and you don't have a connection with the people who take your story, whether it be to the stage or to the screen.

But I didn’t dare. That has always been my trouble. I’ve never dared enough.

We all know that the great memories of our childhood are the little triumphs - it doesn't really matter whether that was in writing, art, on the hockey field or on the football field. It's something that makes you feel - 'I can do this stuff'.