When we stop believing in gods we can start believing in their stories, I retort. There are of course no such things as miracles, but if there were and so tomorrow we woke up to find no more believers on earth, no more devout Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, why then, sure the beauty of the stories would be a thing we could focus on because they wouldn't be dangerous any more, they would become capable of compelling the only belief that leads to truth, that is, the willing, disbelieving of the reader in a well-told tale.

No story comes from nowhere; new stories are born from old.

At the height of the British Empire very few English novels were written that dealt with British power. It's extraordinary that at the moment in which England was the global superpower the subject of British power appeared not to interest most writers.

Science fiction is always a vehicle for ideas. It's the form which allows either movies or books to be an exploration of how we should live.

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

So India’s problem turns out to be the world’s problem. What happened in India has happened in God’s name. The problem’s name is God.

Stories in families are colossally important. Every family has stories: some funny, some proud, some embarrassing, some shameful. Knowing them is proof of belonging to the family.