We have to rethink our whole energy approach, which is hard to do because we're so dependent on oil, not just for fuel but also plastic. If plastic vanished, there would be total chaos. We have to think quite carefully about using oil, and its derivatives, because it's not going to be around forever.

If I waited for perfection... I would never write a word.

Marshall McLuhan is absolutely right, we are always looking in the rear view mirror.

Plague has hung over human history. The biggest human extinction was after 1492 in North and South America when the mortality rate was 95 per cent, which is enormous. But again, I'm actually giving you grounds for optimism: There were enough to continue. The five per cent who made it through are what you need to survive a bottleneck, which we have been through before.

If you disagree with your government, that's political. If you disagree with your government that is approaching theocracy, then you're evil.

Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.

No male writer is likely to be asked to sit on a panel addressing itself to the special problems of a male writer.