I write essays to clear my mind. I write fiction to open my heart.

The big ideas always come in flashes. I don't really craft stories that much. I genuinely don't know where these people come from, and I've often wondered if writing is just a socially acceptable form of madness.

I was four when I announced my ambition to write, eight when I began publishing such claims.

I wrote fiction during my entire childhood, from age 4 to 18, and started writing plays when I went to Yale and Oxford.