David Nicholls

David Holdaway was my stage name. I was an actor for about eight years in the '90s. I had to change my name because there was another David Nicholls, and I thought if I changed it to my mother's name, she'd be touched.

I worry sometimes that I'm a bit moralistic; always writing about men who are learning to grow up, not be so self-absorbed, selfish or badly behaved. I wonder if that's dull and liberal and wimpy? I should probably write something that celebrates wickedness.

I get very little sleep. But I try to stay constantly busy. My fear is that if I stop working I'll, like, die. So throughout my life I've always tried to remain busy, and I sort of know no other way. I think if my heart rate slowed it would affect my constitution, strangely. I've been trained to do that.