A couple of weeks ago, I had my first listen to Transformer, Lou Reed’s 1972 solo album, and when it finished I was instantly hit by the desire – which I had never before felt – to write songs. I always liked the idea of writing songs because music is cool, but I’ve never had that essential drive that anyone doing a creative endeavour needs – I haven’t been compelled to write songs the way I’m compelled to write pop culture criticism or space opera or television scripts. What’s funny is that I have recorded music; reading about the way The Beatles recorded their songs and thinking that sounded cool and fun and doing that. But I always just recorded simple instrumental doggerel that never really went anywhere, and occasionally covers of other songs – I never tried to put words to music, let alone make tightly-structured two minute pop songs.

I don’t know what book it is that made me want to write books because I’ve wanted to be a novelist for as long as I can remember, but I can point to The Matrix as the movie that made me want to make movies; not only was I captivated by a simple but compelling narrative of a guy starting weak and becoming strong, I was entranced by the language of film itself emphasising the story; a simple movement of the camera underlining the characters realising a villain was about to try and kill the hero. That movie made me think that telling stories through movies is really cool.

And I love that we can unlock these parts of ourselves by watching movies. How many doctors and nurses have you met who went into the field specifically because they loved a TV show about medicine? I also love that this effect can still strike me even in my thirties; layering in new actions and desires on top of the old. So here’s my question: what’s the art that made you want to make art? And in a broader sense, are there things you were inspired to do specifically because you saw them in a movie or TV show ort whatever?