But science perhaps is very difficult without faith. Also there is no simple way of saying now we have science, we don't need faith anymore.

Wherever you go in the galaxy, you can find a food business, a house-building business, a war business, a peace business, a governing business, and so forth. And, of course, a God business, which is called 'religion,' and which is a particularly reprehensible line of endeavor.

I would like to do a novel where some curse turns that into how the world really is - a blessing or a curse, I don't know which.

It takes me a long time to get with a landscape. It took me 20 years before I wrote anything about Ibiza, and I haven't written about Oregon yet, although I've been there 20 years - possibly I'm almost due.

A lot of us don't want to be quite that serious about world problems. Our life is there to enjoy, not to be an eternal dissident, eternally unhappy with how things are and with the state of mankind.

A novel is often a longer process in handling self-doubt.

Ethical and questions of philosophy interest me a great deal.