‘I believe a story should stand on its own, regardless of an author’s reputation, motivation or any explanation of intent.’

‘For me, the collective writing of Monty Python is an exploration of the boundaries of the thing that connects us all – humanity – through humour. Their persistent and profound sense of bathos, delivered with a laugh, is deeply human, beautiful and useful.’

‘There was always something special and luminous in the stripped back verse of Porter. She could make words dance across the mind and sear themselves into your cerebellum, she could lift you up, she could tear your heart out in a way that made you say ‘thank you’ then beg for more.’

‘Fahrenheit 451 both scared the bejesus out of me and encapsulated the ‘locked and loaded’ feeling of being seized, seduced and taken over by a piece of fiction, and the glimmering politicising awareness that reading itself is a subversive act.’

‘Page after page, I grew prouder to discover that the father of these words originated from the same cultural identity as my own — Kahlil Gibran became the embodiment to me of everything dignified and wise and literary in being Lebanese.’

‘I will often tell students that you must work hard to become better at poetry, and I believe it, but a part of me thinks that a true poet is born with a certain pair of eyes…that take in the small and the large simultaneously, eyes that can see through walls of brick, skin and history, to the pained and pain-inflicting heart of things.’

“In Kindling II, the reader is not only treated to a vast array of forms, but also a nuanced and thoughtful arrangement of pieces.”

‘As a 10-year-old reader it was this veneration of imagination that spoke directly to me. Until that point I had been conditioned to value traditional academic prowess, focus and logic. Daydreaming was inattentive. Montgomery’s books mark the point at which I gave myself permission to enjoy my own imagination’

‘Mr Ondaatje’s bewitching tome has been like my tuning fork over the years — very different, of course, to my own writing — but Coming Through Slaughter sets the bar in terms of daring and risk-taking. All I need is a paragraph from its deliciously audacious pages to get me in the mood and I’m off and racing.’