Knotty theological questions are the least worrying of problems to me. Why? Because they will be resolved in the hereafter, and meanwhile they can be safely shelved.

There was a very serious communist strain among American intellectuals before the war. America was a more tolerant place in those days, and Communists were not treated as pariahs. That ended with the McCarthy era.

James Bond is quite serious about his drinks and clothing and cigarettes and food and all that sort of thing. There is nothing wry or amused about James Bond.

One of the hardest things for me, now that I'm famous, is finding people who can read my stuff and give me an honest critique.

I want to tell a story that makes the reader always want to see what will happen next.

The CIA's research program is described in a book called "The Search for the Manchurian Candidate."

Thrillers have been traditionally very masculine books; the women characters often rather decorative.