When I was growing up, my idea of a writer was someone like Sven Hassel, that mysterious Danish author who wrote thrillers about men clambering over walls and getting tangled in barbed wire.

When I was growing up, there was a feeling in one's living room as much as in one's local gallery that a little elitism was good for the soul.

I've been asked which of the other arts novel-writing is most like, and I have come to believe it is acting. Of course, in terms of pattern it can be like music, in terms of structure it can be like painting, but the job to me is most like acting.

When you grow up by the sea, you spend a good deal of time looking at the horizon. You wonder what on Earth the waves might bring - and where the sea might deposit you - until one day you know you have lived between two places, the scene of arrival and the point of departure.

Guys like Josh Gordon need to stay in his sport and mind his own business.

You want to try and win as many slams as possible in your career. As a tennis player, that's what we always dream of as a kid, wanting to play slams, wanting to win them.

I was political by coming out of the womb. I was gay, and I wanted to play tennis.

I love hockey. Hockey is my go-to sport. It's my jam.