One of the most unsettling things about 'Monologue' is its long silences, in which the man sits alone, staring into the middle distance, without grip of his narrative, lost to the past.

What I always liked about Socrates was his insistence on questioning things for the sake of reaching some sort of clarity - even if it is only clarity about the gaps in our knowledge.

With 'All Is Song,' I tried to construct a very traditional narrative that pulls no tricks.

It's quite difficult to write about female friendship without it seeming to be a very niche subject. It's a difficult balance.

I'm just fascinated by the past. You know, both by the possibilities it holds and by the complete tyranny of it, the way it sort of keeps you in this stranglehold and makes you want things that you no longer have and you can never get back.

We had to be parents by long distance, which is far from satisfactory.