You'll have a lot of days when you don't feel like writing, and that's okay. 'Oh, there'll always be procrastinating, but I keep telling people who ask me for writing advice to take it easy on themselves on one hand, but to cultivate an iron will on the other. He already has some ideas for a new book, and says he will start writing again in the new year (2019). Zusak lives in Sydney with his wife Mika - a business director and consultant - and their two children aged eight and 12. 'That advice has stuck with me my whole life - and when I write, I don't try to be better than anyone, or win, or think of success… I just try to write so much like myself that no-one else could have possibly written it.' You have to win by so much that they can't take it off you.' When I went and complained to my dad, he said, 'I thought you won, too, but you made a mistake - you didn't win by enough. 'Once, when I was about nine years old, I thought I won a race at Athletics, and I was placed in sixth position. He adds that his father played a role in shaping his attitude to writing.

But you also know in your heart that you have to write the book for the people in the book.' Yes, you do worry about the audience for a long time, wondering if they'll stay with you. 'I always write from the inside out - which I guess means I'm writing from the inner world of the story and not worrying about who the audience is going to be. But he doesn't seem too preoccupied with such labels. Zusak's work has often been described as young adult fiction.

Bridge of clay author