I think it can be quite impossible to think well of yourself, so I prefer not to think about that too much. But I am very pleased, obviously.

Originality is a concept possible only to a limited viewpoint.

I sell well now in Russia. I remember one signing in Russia some years ago where the bookstore had two strongmen to hold the crowds back.

I was never able to write seriously about heroes because I was very aware that I was not one and that in my background there was not this heroic thing.

I'm quite influenced in this by one of my heroes, Montaigne, who thought a man's real task was to render as honest an account of himself as he could.

It is a truism throughout the civilized galaxy that when you go to the police, your troubles really begin.

Once you find you can't walk as far and as fast as you were able, life becomes more complicated.