I discovered that if you find the language to talk to younger readers, children can accept anything.

Obviously, a rigid, blinkered, absolutist world view is the easiest to keep hold of, whereas the fluid, uncertain, metamorphic picture I've always carried about is rather more vulnerable.

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.

Fundamentalism isn't about religion, it's about power.

Our lives teach us who we are.

Once you have been in an earthquake you know, even if you survive without a scratch, that like a stroke in the heart, it remains in the earth's breast, horribly potential, always promising to return, to hit you again, with an even more devastating force.

I was very happy in Bombay. I was good at school. There was no reason to change anything. I suppose it must have been some spirit of adventure, of wanting to see the world.