Appalling things can happen to children. And even a happy childhood is filled with sadnesses.

...and there was nothing to do except to wait and to hurt.

And people who believe in God think God has put human beings on earth because they think human beings are the best animal, but human beings are just an animal and they will evolve into another animal, and that animal will be cleverer and it will put human beings into a zoo, like we put chimpanzees and gorillas into a zoo. Or human beings will all catch a disease and die out or they will make too much pollution and kill themselves, and then there will only be insects in the world and they will be the best animal.

Children simply don't make the distinction; a book is either good or bad. And some of the books they think are good are very, very bad indeed.

Fiction that responds to recent world events is a hostage to fortune because all momentous events look very different a year, two years, three years later.

I think one of the things you have to learn if you're going to create believable characters is never to make generalizations about groups of people.

If you enjoy math and you write novels, it's very rare that you'll get a chance to put your math into a novel. I leapt at the chance.