My family didn't like me going on the stage, and they didn't much like my being a writer, either.

I was brought up Irish, where there was room for my own private world.

A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.

I think the idea of 'Mary Poppins' has been blowing in and out of me, like a curtain at a window, all my life.

You can use your real identity, or you can use phone numbers for something like WhatsApp, and pseudonyms for something like Instagram. But in any of those you're not just sharing and consuming content, you are also building relationships with people and building an understanding of people.

I think one of the things that I picked up from Nigeria is the constant pressure to be excellent. Parents drill in this responsibility towards family, but also a responsibility toward making sure your family name is heralded.

I don't crush the kids. But I do want them to know that they have to earn what they get. I'm not like Jimmy Piersall's dad or anything. I mean, I tell them I'm happy if they just do the best they can. My parents were that way with me.

There's love for your parents, your family, your spouse, your partner, your friends, but the nature of the connection you have with your child, there's nothing like it. It has its own character and it's so serious and so powerful, and so it's a prism through which I see everything.