What I'm going to be given I gather is not the key to the city, which in many cities is the case. It's the freedom medal, and for me freedom has always been associated traditionally within the city.

I have a necklace with a golden key, given to me by my sisters, which I always wear.

I was allowed to wander where I could. Here is a case in which you search for your independence and allow something creative to come out of that.

I suppose I'm led to do so by the fact of what happened to my contemporaries - people whom I've admired, people who I thought were ten times better than me when I was in my twenties and early thirties. I may have been right.

I don't believe in kicking away ladders. By that, I mean the ladders by which I ascended as a young writer, small magazines that didn't pay anything, and that sort of thing.

For me, Dracula has always been associated with travel and beautiful historical places.