You can't make accommodations in crucial situations and be heroic.

I invented the historical spy novel.

Once you have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them.

I don't really write plots. I use history as the engine that drives everything.

I read very little contemporary anything.

I don't inflict horrors on readers.

My novels are about the European reality, not about chases. You want chases, get somebody else's books.