Sarah Hall

It's taken me 15 years to feel I might be able to write and publish short stories, and for the assiduous checks of the industry to allow some through.

I wander around the house and write in bed, at the kitchen table, by the window, in the yard.

I used to dislike bookshops immensely as a child and was won over only later in life.

It's good to like yourself, and that only comes from hard work, from doing. But vanity is dangerous; it can trip you badly.

I think the word 'social entrepreneur' is a really good description of what I am. What that means me to is that you have the entrepreneurial gift and spirit to create something out of nothing.

Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.