Stories you read when you're the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called.

Television and cinema were all very well, but these stories happened to other people. The stories I found in books happened inside my head. I was, in some way, there. It's the magic of fiction: you take the words and you build them into worlds.

Children, as I have said, use back ways and hidden paths, while adults take roads and official paths.

The short story is still like the novel's wayward younger brother, we know that it's not respectable - but I think that can also add to the glory of it.

The future came and went in the mildly discouraging way that futures do.

[I spent] much of my time reminding Matt Groening that I really need to be a head in a jar on Futurama.

No, look, there's a blue box. It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. It can go anywhere in time and space and sometimes even where it's meant to go. And when it turns up, there's a bloke in it called The Doctor and there will be stuff wrong and he will do his best to sort it out and he will probably succeed cos he's awesome. Now sit down, shut up, and watch 'Blink'.