I think if I was ever really going to be more serious about writing I'd have to try and find some way to do it with other people. I do find the silence kind of eerie.

I can't spend the rest of my life being pretty in a bonnet.

My alter egos have changed a lot over the years. When I was a child, I was a black horse called Storm. Whinnying and jumping over bamboo poles in the garden took up pretty much my entire childhood.

I have always been interested in gender politics, so I'm not that keen on doing things that don't represent a truth about women.

I've worked with actors who tell everyone what to do in the scene - that makes me go pretty atomic.

I want people to think I'm sexy, but to know also that I've got an ordinary body and not feel intimidated.

Women don't question themselves when they enter into a story that has male characters, but men do question the validity of a female narrative.