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.

After doing extensive research, I can definitely tell you that single malt whiskies are good to drink.

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.

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

Truth, I have learned, differs for everybody. Just as no two people ever see a rainbow in exactly the same place - and yet both most certainly see it, while the person seemingly standing right underneath it does not see it at all - so truth is a question of where one stands, and the direction one is looking in at the time.

I think the future stopped looking American when you think back to Blade Runner and Neuromancer, when it started to look more Japanese.