My first book really did change my life. It allowed me to fully express myself. There was a sense that I was worth something as an artist.

If you stop thinking, if you stop wondering, you die.

That's what I always liked about science fiction - you can make the world end. Humour is my multiple warhead delivery system.

I don't have many possessions, apart from my books.

Good fiction makes me turn off all the other parts of my brain, so that I become quiet and submissive, entirely at the mercy of the work at hand.

My parents were constantly afraid they would lose their jobs. The idea that we were always a paycheck away from disaster was drilled into me.

Let's see if I can write about something other than my heart.