I like to think that I have no single view nor any single situation that I think things arrive from. I try to give examples of what I think are interesting questions for me.

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.

I sell well now in Russia. I remember one signing in Russia some years ago where the bookstore had two strongmen to hold the crowds back.

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

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.

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

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