We are weak writing is difficult but for my own sake I do not regret this journey which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships help one another and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past.

Faithfulness to the past can be a kind of death above ground. Writing of the past is a resurrection the past then lives in your words and you are free.

All stories interest me and some haunt me until I end up writing them. Certain themes keep coming up: justice loyalty violence death political and social issues freedom.

I got that experience through dating dozens of men for six years after college getting an entry level magazine job at 21 working in the fiction department at Good Housekeeping and then working as a fashion editor there as well as writing many articles for the magazine.

Taylor Swift dates guys so she can write a breakup song about them. I don't think she's dating for love - I think she's dating for creativity. So let's get her off the market and put her in dating detox. If she really wants love she has to stop writing music about them.

My dad and mom divorced when I was around ten and I didn't live with him after that though he was close by and we saw each other weekly. I wasn't really aware that he was a writer I didn't start reading his writing until I was about fifteen. It occurred to me then that my dad was kind of special he's still one of my favorite writers.

One of the accidental joys of my writing life has been that I've had some lovely surprisingly good fortune with readers and I've brought readers to my dad's work. I can't tell you the joy that gives me. Because my father's work was masterful.

I remember once giving my dad some drawings and writings and said 'If you could just give these to the publisher that would be great.' And I was about five!

People say I'm not good at writing about men. My dad left when I was 16. Give me a break. I'm doing the best I can.

I remember once we got an interview and he said 'Dad these people are writing about me like I'm an adult. Don't they know I'm a kid?' I have never tried to encourage him to get a music image like other musicians have.

I remember my dad working with me on breaking down my script and writing out a back story for my character and all that stuff.

My dad's gay experiences really had a very positive influence on me and my straight relationships - how to better accept all the weirdness and ambiguity and ups and downs and paradoxes. I knew from the beginning I was writing about love.

When I started writing I did have some idealised notion of my dad as a writer. But I have less and less of a literary rivalry with him as I've gone on. I certainly don't feel I need his approval although maybe that's because I'm confident that I've got it.

I think the hardest thing about making music now is being a great dad at the same time. There's an insanity that goes with writing - a mad scientist thing that you have to go through - and sacrificing a kid's upbringing to do that is not an option.

I have four shelves covered with journals that I've written. Dad and I are writing songs together. I've probably written 100 songs.

I have written a memoir here and there and that takes its own form of selfishness and courage. However generally speaking I have no interest in writing about my own life or intruding in the privacy of those around me.

It was actually a women's writing group I belonged to in graduate school that gave me the courage to move from poetry to fiction.