The things we do without the fear of failure and the desire for success are the purest acts we'll ever do

London has been used as the emblematic English city, but it's far from representative of what life in England is actually about.

People have asked me why I made the first chapter of my first novel so long, and in an invented English. The only answer I can come up with that satisfies me is, 'To keep out the scum.'

The multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him... [from Macbeth]

Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.

There are people. There are stories. The people think they shape the stories, but the reverse if often closer to the truth. Stories shape the world. They exist independently of people, and in places quite devoid of man, there may yet be mythologies.

To some degree Satanism is purely a kind of disease of Christianity. You've got to really be Christian to believe in Satan.