The Royal Family are not like you and me. They live in houses so big that you can walk round all day and never need to meet your spouse. The Queen and Prince Philip have never shared a bedroom in their lives. They don't even have breakfast together.

My mother isolated herself from all family and friends for some 20 years. And never met her grandchild my son.

My family has very strong women. My mother never laughed at my dream of Africa even though everyone else did because we didn't have any money because Africa was the 'dark continent' and because I was a girl.

You know most people they want to go to Hollywood. They want to be a star. They want to be a rock star. That thought never entered any of our minds the Van Halen family.

I was the black sheep of the family and my mother never really understood me.

A lot of parents never speak to their transgender kids again that's not the case in my family.

You never know when some small thing will lead to a big idea. Travel is very inspirational - but it's in the ordinary that I find my themes of love and work and family.

My father never talked about the sacrifices that the family made for me.

My work's never been accepted by my family but it's something I'll always carry on with.

As a novelist I mined my history my family and my memory but in a very specific way. Writing fiction I never made use of experiences immediately as they happened. I needed to let things fester in my memory mature and transmogrify into something meaningful.