"You never know what you're going to end up with when you sit down to write something. At the end, if..." — Ali Smith

I really like jackets and tend to buy them to the detriment of my need of all the other items.

When we meet a work of art, there's something about that encounter that isn't fixed in time, but rather, it unfixes time: the shaft opens. The past and present exist in the same moment, and we know, as beings, that we are connected. All the people who lived before us, all who will come after us, are connected in this moment.

I have a theory, now - that the whole of the Renaissance was peopled with girls dressed as boys so they could make art.

I see the difficulty of kids in going to university, the difficulty of kids in schools getting arts education, so that the arts and drama and the creative arts are extracurricular. They aren't: they are at the centre, and they are the equipment we so desperately need in the world.