Chances are if you bought a living room set from one showroom, everyone else did as well. It's disappointing to look at a room and it's all from one store.

Once you get started, you can get enthused about individual pieces, so when you come across something special you can take advantage of it.

See how the furniture is put together on those pages. For example, look at the sofa. Maybe you're drawn to the idea that the end tables are the same height as the ends of the sofa. Or maybe you see a round table and a square one and you decide the round is what you like.

There's no such thing as an original idea. We're all inspired by books, magazines and movies.

Paris is cafe culture, Dublin is pub culture, and that's the best place to solve all the world's problems: over a pint! One of the great joys of living, I think. The problems of the world seem to disappear.

A certain slightly cruel disregard for the feelings of living people is simply part of the package. I think a writer, if he's any good, is not an entirely benign entity in the world.