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.

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.

I do think that short story writing is often a matter of luck.

The British audience was very important to me. I have always looked away from American to non-American audiences and so this was important.

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

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.

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