Don't write about trying to change the world, just write about a changed world or a world that's not changing. Let that do the work.

If all the students who slept through lectures were laid end to end, they'd all be a lot more comfortable. If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door.

People are very comfortable when race relations get looked at retrospectively. Slavery, the civil rights movement, etc.

I've written a little bit in Germany.

Even when it comes to writing fiction, how do you encompass all this stuff that's right on the tip of your tongue? You have to fold that into what you're working on.

Like when you have the right title for something you're writing and you get lost - you can always go back to the title and go, "Yeah, that's what this is about."

I'm hugely honored [with the Man Booker Prize].