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.

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

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.

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

I don't finish every story, but I probably write and send out three out of five of them.

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

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.