It was a truism that all civilizations were basically neurotic until they made contact with everybody else and found their place within the ever-changing meta-civilisation of other beings, because, until then, during the stage when they honestly believed they might be entirely alone in existence, all solo societies were possessed of both an inflated sense of their own importance and a kind of existential terror at the sheer scale and apparent emptiness of the universe.

One should never mistake pattern for meaning.

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

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

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

It gripped her hand gently. 'Regret is for humans,' it said. She laughed. 'Really?' The machine shrugged and let go of her hand. 'Oh, no. It's just something we tell ourselves.

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.