I was born Mary Patterson, but then I married and naturally took my husband's name, so now I'm Neil Patterson.

I get an urge, like a pregnant elephant, to go away and give birth to a book.

Lectures broke into one's day and were clearly a terrible waste of time, necessary no doubt if you were reading law or medicine or some other vocational subject, but in the case of English, the natural thing to do was talk a lot, listen to music, drink coffee and wine, read books, and go to plays, perhaps be in plays.

I met too frankly preposterous, if it weren't for their banal evil, politicians and pastors who told knowing lies about the evils of homosexuality in order to attract bigger flocks to their churches and more votes and power to their corrupt councils. LGBT people seem to be being scapegoated more and more just as at the same time in more enlightened countries more and more freedom to express themselves, marry, be given official intersex status and so on is offered.

If you go looking for loonies and religious fanatics and dropouts and freaks, I dare say you'll find it.

Families where there is not much laughter I think are signs of some sort of dysfunctionality or sickness.

Things are always worse in the steady watches of the night.