“I read a lot of scripts, so I know by page 25 if I like it or not.”

I have great admiration for athletes. They are just like actors in a lot of ways. They have tremendous pressures and conflicts. They have to compete, and they can’t stay home just because they have a head cold.

You are fully capable of deciding your own destiny. The question you face is: which path will you choose? This is something only you can decide.

What is necessary is never unwise.

You get thought of in terms of your last job. So if my last job is that of a meat cleaver-wielding character, I will hardly be cast as some benign, older gentleman.

I huff and puff and struggle with every sentence, paragraph and page – sometimes every word as well.

Between the pages of a book is a lovely place to be.

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I think many poets, including myself, write both for the voice and for the page. I certainly write for the person alone in the library, who pulls down a book and it opens to a poem. I am also very conscious of what it means to read these poems aloud.

The experience of reading a comic should not be the time it takes to turn each page.

I could write pages of poetry about you. And yet words never seem to say enough.

You try not to because it’s hard and at times shameful, but then when you read those pages over and you see they have no life to them so you throw them away and force yourself to be more honest.

I had a financial page to write in the Mail on Sunday where Id give tips on shares. I worked there for two and a half years. Nothing compares to the burst of energy felt on a newsroom floor when a big story breaks.