Someone came in all Starfleet badges today. Not on my shift, sadly.' 'Fascist,' Leon had said. 'Why are you so prejudiced against nerds?' 'Please,' Billy said. 'That would be a bit self-hating, wouldn't it?' 'Yeah, but you pass. You're like, you're in deep cover,' Leon said. 'You can sneak out of the nerd ghetto and hide the badge and bring back food and clothes and word of the outside world.

We should have just killed him, that's a lesson, don't get creative with revenge

I feel fantastically geeky. [But] I'm not one of those people who's enormously proud of being a geek, but nor am I particularly ashamed of it.

Everything has changed. I cannot be used anymore. Those days are over. I know too much. What I do now, I do for me.

Is it more childish and foolish to insist that there is a conspiracy or that there is not?

In every book I write, I try to name-check the most prominent influences, or the most prominent conscious influences.

There's plenty of stuff that I don't feel dissident about: I really like tea, I don't have any problem with that. I like lots of paintings.