It's nice to know that people appreciate and respect you.
Something I notice speaking to writers from south of Hadrians Wall is that the culture is different. At base, I think Scotland values its creative industries differently from England.
The law don't like jazz clubs. No one wants anything to do with that kind of trouble.
I always thought that bagels and lox was my soul food, but it turns out it's sushi.
I had never really understood what an adventure life could be, if you followed your heart and did what you really wanted to do, which is what we must all do in the end.
For me, writing stories set, well, wherever they're best set, is a form of cultural curiosity that is uniquely Scottish - we're famous for travelling in search of adventure.
I find it inspiring to actively choose which traditions to celebrate and also come up with new ideas for traditions of my own.
The idea, the pattern, is self-projected; it is a form of self-worship, of self-perpetuation, and hence gratifying.
In the end, for me, the sole single goal is to write the best novel that I can. Whether or not it gets made or gets purchased.
Fight the good fight; and always call to mind that it is not you who are mortal, but this body of ours. For your true being is not discerned by perceiving your physical appearance. But 'what a man's mind is, that is what he is' not that individual human shape that we identify through our senses.
I don't know what better teenage life you could get than going around the world doing what you love to do.