I am a passionate devotee of the Howard Hawks' screwball comedies of the 1930s and the 1940s, where I think that the relations between men and women were at their civilized height in terms of banter and exchange of wit and equality.

I'm not a writer just to be a writer. I want to say something that really needs expressing.

I'm interested in the things that might seem slight or amusing but which I feel have a kind of profundity.

It is customary for the writer to sneer that Hollywood has traduced their book. Well, I adore my film.

I speak as the journalist who, on the first day back at work for 'The Daily Telegraph' after the birth of my daughter, went to interview Tom Hanks with an epaulette of banana sick on my jacket.

Every so often, you come across a member of the younger generation who makes you think, 'Well, perhaps the future's going to be OK after all.'

We carry our younger selves with us our whole lives, and we can measure out of lives by music we've loved or icons we've loved.

One thing that did give me pause for thought, when I told my female friends now that I was writing about a 13-year-old girl, without exception they all said, 'I would not go back to being 13 for a million pounds.'

If I had written a book saying, 'Ladies, your life is terrible,' I would have sold three copies. It's always better to laugh people into recognition.

Sometimes it's a relief just to focus on putting one foot in front of the other.