I'm not too fond of the hard work and the constant battle with self-doubt that goes on when I write, but I figure that's part of the territory.

Why in God's name should a God be praised if he is only performing his Godly function?

The absurdist stuff wasn't terribly popular at the time I was doing it.

So I wrote what I hoped would be science fiction, I was not at all sure if what I wrote would be acceptable even. But I don't say that I consciously wrote with humour. Humour is a part of you that comes out.

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

As far as the mechanics go, working with other people on received ideas was for me a very interesting technical problem. I can't say that any of my collaborations engaged my heart, but they engaged the craftsman in me.

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.