The last three books are much more a case of a moment of history, what happened almost by accident or coincidence, like being in the same elevator or lifeboat.

When I write my novels I don't really have a huge plan beforehand; I don't have the whole plot and architecture, so the story is sort of discovered as I write it.

Research can be a big clunker. It's difficult to know how you can make the historical light.

People don't write about kids; you have to give them a lot of freedom, and that causes anarchy and that causes farce.

I often need a limited space. It's like having a house to roam around in and reinvent and have things to happen in, kind of like a French farce. Doors opening, doors closing, new people arriving, and disappearing, and so forth.

The rulers of the country generally believed that betting eliminates strikes. Men had to work in order to gamble.

Over the years, confusing fragments, lost corners of stories, have a clearer meaning when seen in a new light, a different place.