I watch a lot of sport on television. I only watch certain sports, and I only watch them live - I don't think I've ever been able to watch a replay of a match or game of which the result was already decided. I feel bound to cheat and look up what can be looked up.

Funny way to spend your life, though, studying another chap's versifying.

One of the reasons I've gotten so attached to talking to scientists is that... they know there is a reality.

I am not an academic who happens to have written a novel. I am a novelist who happens to be quite good academically.

The more research you do, the more at ease you are in the world you're writing about. It doesn't encumber you, it makes you free.

I don't see much point in doing things for a pure joke. Every now and then you need a joke, but not so much as the people who spend all their lives constructing joke palaces think you do.

I did a lot of my writing as though I was an academic, doing some piece of research as perfectly as possible.