There are times when phrases such as 'totally astonished' just don't do the job. I am of course delighted and honoured and, needless to say, flabbergasted.

You have the effrontery to be squeamish, it thought at him. But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible. But this much I can tell you, you ape – the great face pressed even closer, so that Wonse was staring into the pitiless depths of his eyes – we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.

Do not act incautiously when confronting a little bald wrinkly smiling man!

Eight years involved with the nuclear industry have taught me that when nothing can possible go wrong and every avenue has been covered, then is the time to buy a house on the next continent.

Even if it's not your fault, it's your responsibility.

A world like that, which exists only because the gods enjoy a joke, must be a place where magic can survive. And sex too, of course.

Everyone is reading what they like and that's a good thing.