Writing is like everything else: the more you do it the better you get. Don't try to perfect as you go along, just get to the end of the damn thing. Accept imperfections. Get it finished and then you can go back. If you try to polish every sentence there's a chance you'll never get past the first chapter.

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'm not a great believer in awards-of course the fact that I've never won one has nothing to do with it at all!

I'm a devoted husband. That must strike you as totally deviant.

People can be teachers and idiots; they can be philosophers and idiots; they can be politicians and idiots... in fact I think they have to be... a genius can be an idiot. The world is largely run for and by idiots; it is no great handicap in life and in certain areas is actually a distinct advantage and even a prerequisite for advancement.

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

Technology determines the possibilities of society. It doesn't matter whether you start out from a fascist state or a communist state or a free-market state