I'm an only child so am happy with my own company and I don't really get lonely.

Smell is a very animal thing, almost reptilian, where the more cerebral things like reading less so.

My gratitude extends beyond the limits of my capacity to express it.

In so much of politics you're not allowed to disagree with what's been agreed.

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.

Mr Blawke always reminded me of a heron; I'm not sure why. Something to do with a sense of rapacious stillness, perhaps, and also the aura of one who knows time is on his side.

I think a lot of people are frightened of technology and frightened of change, and the way to deal with something you're frightened of is to make fun of it. That's why science fiction fans are dismissed as geeks and nerds.