That moving a lot really committed me to stability and committed me to ... being in control of my destiny. That was something that was very important to me. And it also made me very conservative about money.

Carrie helped me keep to a strict rhythm, but all the essays took shape in very idiosyncratic ways.

Moments of pure inspiration are glorious, but most of a writer’s life is, to adapt the old cliché, about perspiration rather than inspiration. Sometimes you have to write even when the muse isn’t cooperating.

It’s best to start writing when you wake up in the morning, or afternoon, or whenever it is you wake up. Just start then, because you are closer to the dream state than at any other time in the day, which means the imagination is really working on all cylinders, and it means that whatever it is that manufactures sentences in your head is very fresh, and you have all kinds of slants on things that by the end of the day you won’t have, or you will just lose along the way. Further advice I have not.

I don’t like the concept of not being allowed to go somewhere just because you’re not part of the gang. In London, it seems like everywhere is a club. I hate the fact you’ve got to be a member of one to get a late-night drink in the center. It’s horrible. And I mean, I’m a member of one there, but I never go to it. There’s something about them that is kind of culty, actually—the idea that we are the in-crowd.

The power of positive thinking.

Biggest lesson; Treat people respectfully. There's a sort of vogue, and there has been for decades now, that the director is god and the director is all knowing.

The Cumming fragrance line. the soap, Cumming in a bar (still available at alancumming.com) is my favorite ever pun on my name.

I would say, “Don’t worry. It’s all going to be fine.” I always thought it would be fine, but there was a long time when it wasn’t fine. In terms of my career, the biggest thing I wanted to do was work in this theater in Glasgow. That was my dream. I thought that was a huge dream and maybe I’d move to London one day. I just wanted to work and I still just want to do work. I do think this happening to me is partially due to a a willingness to be like “Okay, I’ll go to America.” I’m not hungry.

Everyone should do it. For me, it’s like going to the gym for my mind.