Theatre is expensive to go to. I certainly felt when I was growing up that theatre wasn't for us. Theatre still has that stigma to it. A lot of people feel intimidated and underrepresented in theatre.

Often as a child you see someone with a learning disability or Down's Syndrome and my mum and dad were always very quick to explain exactly what was going on and to be in their own way inclusive and welcoming.

I heard the various terms of abuse at school and probably indulged them in the way you do as a kid.

I had bags of energy as a kid.

I didn't have children because I was passionate about having my career.

Leaving home early is always complicated. But when I arrived in Germany, I encountered an incredible structure built by the company that takes care of my career. They did not leave me wanting for anything. The most complicated thing was really the language. Otherwise, everything was taken care of.

I've had a different kind of career on the periphery of show business. I've never been on any kind of corporate timetable whereby every six months I have to pop out a record like a pulping mill. I've called my own shots. When I get tired, I take time off.

After college, I was burdened with student loans to repay, no financial cushion, so I wasn't in a position to bet everything on a creative-writing career - neither the writing-workshop academia life nor the freelance-writer version, trying to scrape by on short stories and house-painting gigs.