I found some time ago that I have to be careful, while working on a novel, what I read.

This is mainly because I spend a lot of time writing and so don't have much time to read; I hate to waste that time reading what may turn out to be junk food for the mind, when there's so much real writing to be read.

Most publishers seem very reluctant to publish short story collections at all; they bring them out in paperback, often disguised as novels.

I started writing, or rather, thinking, stories as a child, and at that time the reason was very clear.

Whatever I'm reading at the moment seems to influence whatever I'm writing.

I have a kind of standard explanation why, which goes like this: Science fiction is one way of making sense out of a senseless world.

See, I have no journalism in my background, so I wasn't practised at research or writing non-fiction, nor at handling the truth in a journalistic way. Journalists know when to call a halt and write something, but I kept on looking for answers.