It's always hard for an author to determine his own intentions, especially in retrospect.

I do think that the legacy of the Norman conquest is still strong in Britain. Our hereditary monarchy, our established church, our ancient county structures, though hollowed out in many ways, are a direct result of what happened in 1066.

In most novels, the landscape, or the place, in which the story takes part is simply a backdrop to the human action.

The world we are in today is likely to end catastrophically, as many other human worlds have done before.

It's always hard for an author to determine his own intentions, especially in retrospect.

We like to think that the fate of the Earth and the fate of human worlds are the same thing, but we're not as important as that.

"Romanticizing the past" is a familiar accusation, made mostly by people who think it is more grown-up to romanticize the future.