Did I have a mis-spent youth? I suppose I did in that I left school early without any qualifications, having bunked off a few times for tournaments.

The memories for the missed opportunities are stronger than for the ones I managed to get over the line in.

In all the years I've been playing, I've never considered changing my cue. It was the first cue I ever bought, aged 13, picked from a cabinet in a Dunfermline snooker centre just because I liked the Rex Williams signature on it. I saved £40 to buy it. It's a cheap bit of wood, and it's been the butt of other players' jokes for ages."

I could have had eight or nine world titles at least, and you do think about that at times.

I was really fortunate in my career where I always had executives who were very like-minded.

I looked at my mom and her life, and I thought, 'I don't want that.' I don't think my mom wanted it, either. I think my mom did want to be out there and have a career. She loved working. As soon as we were old enough to feed ourselves, she was out.

I think most of my childhood, adolescence, and teenage years, I was struggling to feel validated - which led to a lot of my career choices as well.

Anybody who is in freelance work, especially artistically, knows that it comes with all the insecurity and the ups and downs. It's a really frightening life.