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.

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.

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.

I have never been a critic of science fiction as a whole.

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

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.