Until I was 16, I read nothing but science fiction. I loved William Gibson and I still do. But my favourite book when I was growing up, for a long time, was 'Snow Crash' by Neal Stephenson, which I must have read about a dozen times when I was a teenager.

I'm very finicky about when I'm in the right mood to write. So most days, I find some excuse not to do anything.

I never really have blank page syndrome. I don't get blocked. I have a plan for my novel before I start which, although incomplete, probably contains enough material for several novels by a quieter kind of writer. And I try to get my arms around that material and see where it takes me.

When I'm writing new material, I never have any trouble coming up with ideas.

I don't have a day job, so I read any time of day.

Mystery, investigation, false leads, solution - we associate that structure with genre fiction, but it exists in our real lives, too. There's no reason why literary fiction shouldn't be able to acknowledge that and make it fresh.

Statistically, you don't have much chance of becoming president if you're not tall and fairly handsome or at least conventional-looking.