I always have lots of zany ideas for promotional stuff as publication nears.

I always have lots of zany ideas for promotional stuff as publication nears.

I've written over 100 short stories. You could say I'm obsessed with short stories.

The Belgians tend to downplay the cultural divide issue, and the far-right issue, but there's a staggering degree of casual racism in Belgium, much worse than in the UK.

Increasingly, those who used to teach and write critical or theoretical texts are writing fiction, poetry and so on; and kinds of texts are being produced that call for budding readers rather different from those who studied literature in the past.

I am interested in power and in the idea of one country exerting power over another. The Soviets took this to an extreme.

I have no patience with up-themselves authors who complain about having to trail round a few bookshops signing stock.