It may not seem that way, but I am an absolute optimist, an unrepentant optimist.

I am indebted to anyone who has ever written anything. I am indebted to the unknown carver of pictograms on a gallery of stone panels, which I encountered and stood in silence before on top of a distant odd-shaped hill in northern Kenya. For whatever reason the muses have most unexpectedly invited me to join this immense procession. I am humbled and delighted.

Even if you're in charge of the grand story there's still memory. The other stories do not go away.

Dying away from home, away from the soil of your birth - and to do so unseen and unmourned - is a profound horror.

I come from a culture that has refined the art of the dirge to a sublime level.

I can edit into infinity. It's such a joy. I'd probably edit until the last word. Until there's only one word left.

Even though we've written epic poems and made incredible films about love, I still don't think anyone can understand what it is, or why it means everything.