No one's policing their own minds more than an author. You spend a lot of time in your own head analysing what you think about things, and a philosophy comes.

That's the most terrible thing about being an author - standing there at your mother's funeral, but you don't switch the author off. So your own innermost thoughts are grist for the mill. Who was it said - one of the famous lady novelists - 'unhappy is the family that contains an author'?

I've lost both parents in the last two years, so you pick up on that stuff. That's the most terrible thing about being an author - standing there at your mother's funeral, but you don't switch the author off. So your own innermost thoughts are grist for the mill.

The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head.

There's a bond among a kitchen staff, I think. You spend more time with your chef in the kitchen than you do with your own family.

There can be no better grounding for a lifetime as an author than to see humanity in all its various guises through the lens of the reporter for the town.