My own career started in New York at the 'Associated Press', a fast-paced news agency where we rarely had time for deep reporting.

The strength of fiction is not in reading about yourself, but in reading about other people.

What the art world has done, it has been constantly been pushing the boundaries about what art can be. It's like expanding its territory.

My intent was to gain experience for fiction I eventually hoped to write. But there's no question I was drawn in by the hope that journalism would be a creative, thrilling environment.

I had a lot of different reasons for writing the book, but at its core was the desire to write for black teenage girls growing up reading books they were absent from. That was my experience as a child. 'Children of Blood and Bone' is a chance to address that. To say you are seen.

I played football ever since I was a little boy. Coming from a family of six boys, I guess we learned the game of football from a very young age.

My parents find me hilarious. They don't pull me up for anything because I'm a good daughter. I stay at home, don't party too much, people don't talk about my affairs or that I am unprofessional. In fact, people tell my parents that I'm so well-brought up. Yes, I tend to shoot my mouth off, but they don't pull me up for that.

In five years' time I'd like to be a mum. I want to settle down and have a family, definitely sooner rather than later. I'd like to have finished my second album too, maybe even my third. I'd like a sound that sticks around that other people are inspired by and that people know is me.