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.

I think it can be quite impossible to think well of yourself, so I prefer not to think about that too much. But I am very pleased, obviously.

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

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've always thought of absurdism as a French fad I'd like to belong to.

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

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.