I've always loved Scotland, and I'm not a huge fan of big cities, to be honest. I like them to dip into for a bit, but I'm not sure I would want to live in one again.

My point has always been that, ever since the Industrial Revolution, science fiction has been the most important genre there is.

I enjoy it too much - even if I knew I'd never get a book published, I would still write. I enjoy the experience of getting thoughts and ideas and plots and characters organised into this narrative framework.

Reason shapes the future, but superstition infects the present.

Even in my side of the world, I've been in publishing for what, 25 or 26 years, and it's gone from being a gentlemen's club to being a few big players, and it's very corporatised.

I think the easiest people to fool are ourselves. Fooling ourselves may even be a necessary precondition for fooling others.

I still find it hard to understand that anyone could argue that you can't have machines that exhibit consciousness.