The most obvious inspiration to be brave is that we all feel it: you can't have free expression right now in a very wide range of countries. It takes a lot of guts for writers and journalists in those countries to stand up against repression and do what they do. Russia is a case in point where, as you know, journalists have an embarrassing habit of being killed for their reporting.

I didn't want to become some embittered old hack getting his revenge for the rest of my life. And I didn't want to become some scared creature cowering in a corner. I remember telling myself not to carry the hatred around, although I know where it is. I have it in a trunk in storage.

I get a lot of letters - a lot of letters saying, who knew that you were funny?

Hell is other people's fantasies.

Writers have been in terrible situations and have yet managed to produce extraordinary work.

It is very, very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it.

I'm a world expert on superhero comics. I think maybe only Michael Chabon knows more than me.