So we have a protective responsibility: the role of a guardian, almost a parent.

So here we have two ideas: the wood and the path. The wood, or the forest if you like, is a wild space. It’s an unstructured space. It’s a space full of possibilities. It’s a space where anything can happen

Words change, they have a history as well as a contemporary meaning; it’s worth knowing those things.

If they didn’t want me to steal from their story, they shouldn’t have invited me into it – that’s my view.

young novelists are often anxious about choosing the best time position for the camera, so they stick to the present tense, which seems to be safe. Unfortunately, what it conveys more often than not is a nervous self-consciousness.

Not for nothing is his personal dæmon the raven, that picker-up of bits and pieces here and there.

playwright David Mamet said something very interesting. He said that the basic storytelling question is: ‘Where do I put the camera?’ Thinking about that fascinating, that fathomlessly interesting, question is part of our responsibility towards the craft. Taking cinematography as a metaphor for storytelling, and realising that around every subject

It’s the difference between the story-world and the story-line.

And while you’re doing that, if you also give the reader enough visual clues for them to know where a scene is taking place, and who’s present, and what time of day it is, and where the light’s coming from; if you make it clear who’s speaking and what they’re saying; if you put the camera in the best place, and don’t move it till you need to; if