My work ethic came from my parents and my fear of failure. I came from a small predominantly black school and I didn't want to let them down.

As might be supposed my parents were quite poor but we somehow never seemed to lack anything we needed and I never saw a trace of discontent or a failure in cheerfulness over their lot in life as indeed over anything.

I think some parents now look at a youngster failing as the final thing. It's a process and failure is part of the process. I would like it if the teacher and the parents would connect more. I think that used to be but we're losing a little bit of that right now.

Indecision and delays are the parents of failure.

My experience with both my parents is that grief has a lot of down sad things but I was also really emotionally raw in the first year after each of them passed. Flowers smelled more intensely my relationships were hotter and I was more willing to risk. I was going for it a lot more. I was 'unsober' and I wasn't playing by my rules.

I was an only child. I've known only children. From this experience I do believe that the children should outnumber the parents.

My parents had an experience of life that is as opposite to mine as you can imagine.

The bullied straight kid goes home to a shoulder to cry on and support and can talk freely about his experience at school and why he's being bullied. I couldn't go home and open up to my parents.

The monsters of our childhood do not fade away neither are they ever wholly monstrous. But neither in my experience do we ever reach a plane of detachment regarding our parents however wise and old we may become. To pretend otherwise is to cheat.

Parents it seems have an almost Olympian persistence when it comes to suggesting more secure and lucrative lines of work for their children who have the notion that writing is an actual profession. I say this from experience.