I was writing the Paraguay book, a Paragauyan told me that only five thousand people in Paraguay read.

I have a nice little idea from some people I met there who are now in their seventies, and I want to tell their story about the revolution through the eyes of musicians, in fact. The '59 Revolution. And what has happened to them since. It's very much a Cuban story. They haven't fared too well.

I tend to prefer traveling in the Third World countries. Like Ethiopia. Or Eritrea.

Radio is very popular [in Britain], but it doesn't connect us in the same way. It seems to have this community function.

This terrible frustration that we so often feel in the West in not being able to articulate and express ourselves.

Diplomacy was what I wanted to do. From really quite an early age and I think I had a false impression that diplomacy equals travel.

I have dipped into Ian McEwan and so on. I tend not to stick with one writer. But I dip in here and there.