‘We have to fight for what is right’: Patti Smith on gender, Sally Rooney and Cop26

In the run-up to the climate conference, the rock’n’roll poet reflects – with a little help from her daughter – on a life spent breaking barriers, hanging out with Dylan and learning to Instagram

James Ivory: ‘I keep being asked, was it difficult, your life? My life, if anything, was too easy’

At 93, the Merchant Ivory director – and oldest ever Oscar winner – reflects on enduring love, delighting in his sexuality and defying film-making expectations

Sarah Moss: ‘The rhetoric during lockdown was terrifying’

The British author on isolation, community and writing a novel set during the coronavirus pandemic

Alan Garner: ‘You don’t want to have a brilliant idea for a novel at the age of 87’

As the much-loved fantasy writer publishes yet another 'final’ novel – about a healer who can cure everything but jealousy – he talks about being made a pariah by Oxford and almost dying three times

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson: ‘My book is me nudging forward from very real fears’

The American debut novelist on the lessons she learned from teaching art, her mixed feelings about Virginia and her experience of white supremacists

Claire Keegan: ‘I think something needs to be as long as it needs to be’

The acclaimed Irish writer on writing short works, the Magdalene Laundries and her new hobby, horse training

‘Our music charts are still kind of segregated’: critic Kelefa Sanneh on pop, fandom and race

The New Yorker writer’s book Major Labels examines why we tag music with a genre, be it for commerce or community. He explains why people still argue over great songs – and why they can thrive on cultural appropriation

Liz Pichon: ‘I always thought the Tom Gates series would come to an end really quickly’

The author and illustrator on dyslexia, doodling and finding new things to write about

Joan Collins: ‘I’m absolutely a feminist but I’ll let somebody carry my bags’

The original vamp on 70 years of showbiz life, having Boris Johnson as a boss and why partying is a dying art

Elizabeth Strout: ‘I’ve thought about death every day since I was 10’

As her latest book, Oh William!, is published, the novelist discusses childhood, loneliness – and perseverance

Billy Connolly: ‘It might be lovely on the other side’

Welder, comedian, Hollywood star, celebrated artist… The life story of Billy Connolly has been a real page turner. Here, he talks about love, loss and landing on his feet

Penelope Lively: ‘I was a traumatised teenager’

The Booker-winning author on starting late as a writer, her clear recall of growing up in Cairo, and the TV programme that kept her going during lockdown

‘My life in the mafia’s shadow’: Italy’s most hunted author, Roberto Saviano

Since 2006, the acclaimed writer has lived in fear for his life, following publication of his exposé on the criminal gangs. The Observer takes a trip back to Naples with him and his minders

‘Give people money and they’re no longer poor, it’s not rocket science’: Sammy Wright of the Social Mobility Commission

Deputy headteacher from Sunderland – and new novelist – on levelling up and his advice to the incoming head of the commission

Michelle de Kretser turns the novel upside down: ‘My aim was to play with form’

The two-time Miles Franklin-winner’s new book, Scary Monsters, is in fact two books, with two front covers – and no clues as to where to start