If I have time to myself I. . .
read, write, watch movies, surf the net and blog but I don't get enough time for a lot with three kids under 10. I was really enjoying Heroes on the telly but it's off at the moment. Mastermind and University Challenge are pretty much my only weekly vices on tv.

You wouldn't know it, but I am very good at. . .
quiz games. Be it Trivial Pursuit or University Challenge. I should be someone's phone a friend on Millionaire.

You may not know it but I am very bad at. . .
remembering things. I have a memory like a sieve . . . couldn't tell you what I did yesterday. But I can remember pointless things like the names of Jupiter's four biggest moons, all the Soviet leaders or names of obscure movie actors.

A book that changed me. . .
Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point. It explains why things in popular culture and business become intensely popular seemingly overnight. It opened my head to a lot of things.

Movie heaven. . .
Playtime, the last great silent movie, made in Paris in the late 1960s by Jacques Tati. I saw it as a kid and the IFI showed it not too long ago. But I managed then to get it on DVD.

When I was a child I wanted to be. . .
An astronaut. I was obsessed with space and astronomy and had a huge series of books that I've passed on now to my son Ben.

All my money goes on. . .
Bills! ! I almost have nothing left at the end of the month. I bought a hoodie last night for 20 . . . a huge extravagance for me.

At night I dream of. . .
I had stopped dreaming for years and recently I began to dream again. I'm having all sorts of dreams; recently I was living in a caravan in the shape of a giant wooden pagoda that stretched up into the clouds.

My biggest regret. . .
I have them of course but I try not to dwell. I have had my fair share of bad things like anyone else, but I do believe if they happen they are leading me to a better place, job, day, or whatever.

If I wasn't me I'd like to be. . .
John Cusack. He seems a smart nice guy and makes intelligent movies. If there were to be a movie made of my life, I'd like for him to play me, although we look nothing like each other.

It's not fashionable but I like. . .
Noel Coward. His music, his plays, his movie works and everything connected to him. Desperately unfashionable, but there you go.

The soundtrack to my life. . .
I like everything from classical to stuff released yesterday. If there was one song to be played around me while I go about my daily business it would be 'Won't Get Fooled Again' by The Who.

The best invention ever. . .
pen and paper.