I've stayed in houses that were in the country, and in England, but I'm still not sure that I've stayed in an English country house.

I don't know if I've ever derived such an immediate sense of calm and well-being from any book as I did from 'Right Ho, Jeeves.' It was like I was Pac-Man and the book was a power-up.

About as close you can get to the perfect cerebral thriller: searingly smart, ridiculously funny, and fast as hell... I defy anybody to read the first page and not keep going to the last.

Book tours are excellent things, and one is lucky to get to go on one, but they have a way of leeching away one's will to live.

Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there's nothing else.

Until now, I've been a kind of binge-writer - I'll carve out five or six hours on a weekend day and make a large container of espresso and just bang out a lot of words.

There's a special gut-check moment the first time you write a scene in which somebody casts a spell.