As if there's a world that exists that you're semi-privy to yet can't quite penetrate - that's how it feels when you're starting a book.

I was trained to look at colour, edges, to see negative space. I honestly think my greatest influence as a writer is from Cubism - the idea of a multi-faceted, multi-perspective way of looking at things.

Writing is a particular kind of frustration, which is why when I was making the structure for the novel I visualized it for myself with a color-coded board so I could see it.

I do think it is a kind of illness in the sense that it sets you apart, it injects you with an endless, unslakable thirst to keep making the thing. The artist has to voluntarily use themselves endlessly.

In a way, a lot of my work is in the re-writing once it is cast, as I adapt to the rhythms of how the roles are played out by the actors.

You work with each individual actor as you perceive their needs to be. It's something that you've figured out in the weeks of pre-production.

We all have to embrace the idea not to be worried about there being other women in the room. Gay men work with such solidarity.