Firms are a bit concerned about things like oil prices and US growth but actually the change (in firms expectations) is quite small so I think broadly theyre looking for more of the same.

It might be more difficult because you haven't got a book or a prop, but for the most part I like to write unpaid... initially and my own stories.

To what degree are historians chroniclers of the truth and to what degree are they just novelists, frankly?

The stuff that I have perhaps become known for that's based on fact, and English statesmen shouting at each other all the time, doesn't entirely represent who I am. I am not a politics wonk.

When you make a choice as a writer about what it is you want to write, and what it is you're going to spend six months thinking about, you have to fall in love.

The real beauty in my professional experience has been friendships and collaborations with filmmakers.

Movies feel like work, and reading fiction feels like work, whereas reading nonfiction feels like pleasure.