I had a great drama teacher and he sort of made out drama school as this incredibly difficult thing to get into: 6 000 people apply every year and some of the schools only have 12 places. It's a phenomenally difficult thing to get into. And that excited me - I wanted that challenge.

My first public impression was my French teacher Derek Swift.

Following my junior year in high school I went on a camping trip through Russia in a group led by Horst Momber a young language teacher from Roosevelt.

I count myself well educated for the admirable woman at the head of the school which I attended from the age of four and a half till I was thirteen and a half was a born teacher in advance of her own times.

I don't have a lot of skills but one thing I can do is I can compartmentalize. I can make that a little world that I can go back to so I can be a waitress or I can be a teacher and then go and work on my book.

When my opera Plump Jack was performed in 1989 my first piano teacher sent me something that I'd composed when I was four. I remember I played it and it still sounded like me. I'm the same composer I was then.

As a teacher myself I've been in situations where parents come at you and sometimes parents come across like the teacher doesn't want the best for their kid and it can be really really hurtful.

But the idea that I should be a teacher and a researcher of some sort did not vary over the years.

There happened to be guitar classes at the college and there was a guitar teacher there with whom I used to play. In addition I also would go out into country schools and teach little kids basic guitar and singing a few times a week.

There was a teacher who recognized that I was interested in cartooning and he was great.