Writing isn’t just something I do – it’s who I am, what I’m here for, the ultimate trajectory despite everything I undertake in my life. It brings me joy, makes me feel like I have a purpose, a worth. It’s the thing I’m best at and the thing through which I articulate everything about me. All my memories, my actions, my desires, fears, relationships, knowledge, interest, introspection and musing.

I think it's fair to say that billions of people around the world believe they're living in a deterministic universe. "God has a plan", they might say, or "It's God's will", or "that child he allowed to suffer with cancer [if not gave it to the child] is with God now".

I find it very difficult to relax, and of course, to write, you need to relax. You need to be ‘in the zone’, visiting your literary world, the universe you’ve created, without being weighed down by cares and considerations that keep you anchored to the real world. It really is about escaping psychologically into another place.