The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Jesus and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people don’t like that statement, but few can argue with it.

Human beings grew up in forests; we have a natural affinity for them. How lovely a tree is, straining toward the sky.

What does it mean for a civilisation to be a million years old? We have had radio telescopes and spaceships for a few decades; our technical civilisation is a few hundred years old ... an advanced civilisation millions of years old is as much beyond us as we are beyond a bushbaby or a macaque

Virtually every major technological advance in the history of the human species - back to the invention of stone tools and the domestication of fire - has been ethically ambiguous.

Ask courageous questions. Do not be satisfied with superficial answers.

Writing a novel is like trying to solve a very long mathematical equation. Changing anything can change everything else.

Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors.