The best cure for racism is to have somebody shoot at you. Man, it does not matter then what color the arse is that comes to save yours-black or white, you're ready to give it a big fat kiss.

Herbert, my father, was born in Britain but went out to Africa in his teens to join his father and built up an 18,000-acre ranch in what was then Northern Rhodesia, providing work for the locals. He was my hero when I was a boy.

I don't want children. Why should I let some strange little monster into my life to destroy what to me is a perfect set-up?

It's probably true that everyone has a book in them, although it may not be a very good one.

I love the sea as much as I love the veldt of Africa.

All my characters have got a big slice of me in them. A big piece of me, because it's my dialogue and this is the way I think and talk.

What I like about writing is the sense of godlike power it gives you.