When I was growing up, I kept hoping that I wasn't really gay because I wanted to have children. I went through a long, tortured period, so the fact that I have been able to be true to myself and have a family has been the nicest surprise of my adulthood.

Writing 'The Noonday Demon' turned me into a professional depressive, which is a weird thing to be. A class at the university I attended assigns the book and invited me to be a guest lecturer.

We think that fear must be played out in fight, with military intervention, or in flight, via isolationism - but we are not hunted game, and those are not the only options. There is also the possibility of acceptance, with its corollary of understanding and its ultimate manifestation in embracing.

Forging meaning is about changing yourself. Building identity is about changing the world.

The only way I'd have gone was if it would better my career, I would not have gone just for the money. The point was to go to a club that could win trophies.

What point is there to all the wealth and power that America may have if they can't look after its own?

I don't have a craving for money. And I don't have a craving for fame.

OK, I've had a life of sort of success, some people know who I am but a lot of people don't. I feel the need to change that still.