For me, photography only stopped because I was selling books.

I never read articles about my books.

If I'm researching something strange and rococo, I'll go to the London Library or the British Library and look it up in books.

The idea that I am cynical because I'm writing the books that I write is a bit like someone saying, 'What, you've done a second album? Oh, I see, cashing in on your first album, are you?' But I'm a musician! It's sort of what I do.

For me, writing is like being taken on a walk by a footnote: It's amazing where you end up.

I spend a lot of time looking at rococo books. And almanacs used to be huge sellers - they were pretty much part of the fabric of life. I thought, this is bizarre, I'd love to buy a book like this, and there isn't one. So I thought, all right then, this could be fun. I'll write an almanac.