I don't practice but I am still officially in paediatrics. I keep in touch with journals and I have a very good data bank of medical information and there is a key thing for a writer knowing where to go. I know where to go to get the information that I need.

I lost my second marriage because of drinking and I loved the woman very much. But I thought I needed booze to write. I'm glad I was disabused.

For after my marriage I had made various attempts to write fiction. They were clearly failures.

If I felt in the event of a royal wedding inspired to write about people coming together in marriage or civil partnership I would just be grateful to have an idea for the poem. And if I didn't I'd ignore it.

My parents had an arranged marriage as did so many other people when I was growing up. My father came and had a life in the United States one way and my mother had a different one and I was very aware of those things. I continue to wonder about it and I will continue to write about it.

For me it's also - the music is equally as important. I mean I think as somebody who writes music there just has to sort of be the marriage between both.

Love is the answer to everything. It's the only reason to do anything. If you don't write stories you love you'll never make it. If you don't write stories that other people love you'll never make it.

Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love something to live for.

I wanted to write about the moment when your addictions no longer hide the truth from you. When your whole life breaks down. That's the moment when you have to somehow choose what your life is going to be about.

I don't think you ever stop giving. I really don't. I think it's an on-going process. And it's not just about being able to write a check. It's being able to touch somebody's life.