They say that the cuisines of different Chinese provinces arose originally to serve different kinds of constituencies. Beijing was the cuisine of officials. In Shanghai, that was the cuisine of wealthy merchants and industrialists. In Szechwan, the food of the common people. Many great Szechwan dishes originated in street stalls.

Food is the main engine that drives connectedness, relationship in Chinese society.

You know how someone - something - surprises you. You wake up a little bit. That's done through Chinese cuisine - for example, through dishes of artifice. That's a whole sub-tradition in Chinese cuisine. To create a dish that comes to the table looking like one thing but actually is something else.

In my own life I studied music, not creative writing; I see a novel as music - an opening as an overture, themes and subplots as lines in a fugue. The chance to write a novel about a musician boxed in by all kinds of limitations but who plays out his ultimate struggle for freedom at the piano was irresistible.

There's a competitive grief atmosphere in acting classes. Like, whoever has the biggest trauma is sort of like the winner of the day today or gets the A+. That, I could identify with from when I sort of dabbled with method acting classes when I was a teenager.

I was very sad to hear of the death of Ronnie Barker, who was such a warm, friendly and encouraging presence to have when I started in television. He was also a great comic actor to learn from.

When we lost Steve, the grief was understandable, but I wasn't prepared for how scary everything became - that fear factor of 'Now I'm doing this on my own.'

I love life. I love life to death.