People perish. Books are immortal.

People perish. Books are immortal.

I was a political journalist; I came to writing novels through an interest in politics and power.

First comes an idea. Then, characters begin to evolve out of the landscape of that idea. And then, finally, characters dominate: plot is simply a function of what these people might do or be. Everything has to flow from their personalities; otherwise it will not be emotionally engaging, or plausible.

A police state is a country run by criminals

Another of Cicero's maxims was that if you must do something unpopular, you might as well do it wholeheartedly, for in politics there is no credit to be won by timidity.

Their souls were contagious. ... Bloodsuckers, spiders and vampires: that was what Lenin called them.