She wishes her grandmother had not been so protective, and that she understood better what passes between a man and woman. As it is, she simply enjoys the feelings and wonders if they are what lightning is made of, for everything comes back to the weather. Tears like rain. Smiles like the sun. Hair as dry as sand and fear like the dark ocean.

Writers need each other.

A book is a story, even if it's non-fiction, and once I've read it, I have the story with me inside my head always.

There is something particularly fascinating about seeing places you know in a piece of art - be that in a film, or a photograph or painting.

While I'm frustrated at the amount I'm expected to take on in the present, the 1950s woman was frustrated by being excluded - not being allowed to take things on at all.

Copywriters, journalists, mainstream authors, ghostwriters, bloggers and advertising creatives have as much right to think of themselves as good writers as academics, poets, or literary novelists.

The law don't like jazz clubs. No one wants anything to do with that kind of trouble.