One association with the arts that I vividly remember was a magazine called Normal Instructor, a teachers' magazine, that Miss George would hold up with illustrations of great artworks like [Vincent] van Gogh and Rembrandt [van Rijn].

He [my father] didn't have a basement workshop as such, but I know that he did build things, construct things, repair things. My mother, likewise, was sewing and doing activities that often take place in a household.

What I adore is mixing the unexpected, things you don't imagine should go together

At one point I had dreams of being in the school band, but I didn't play an instrument that qualified me, and that was a problem. I always had fantasies to be part of that, but I did take my piano lessons quite seriously.

I was always busy doing something, being an only child.

I've always been a keen cyclist, I'm very close to the world of cycling. Not just cycling really - also walking, adventures, being a curious person, traveling to new countries.

I think I was really naïve. I had no context to think about what I wanted to do. Each step was a next stage of exploration.