There are things about our world that almost by their nature defy our ability to comprehend them. Some people use a religious register to deal with t….

I realized I had a novel on my hands, but didn't know where it was going to go. So I thought, 'I'm going to do everything that you're not supposed to….

I enjoy thinking myself into other times and places. I don't like some of the conventions of the 'historical novel', but I think there's a way of doi….

Suburbia is all about private ownership and not having to share, and it leads to a paranoid, defensive mindset. I know this, having grown up in Essex..

But it's the particularity of a place, the physical experience of being in a place, that makes it onto the page. That's why I don't just do library r….

Say there are three identical-looking pizza joints on a street. Two of those will always be empty. The third will have a line of people patiently wai….

As I got older I became a kind of sub cultural junkie, foraging around in music, street fashion and eventually art, politics and the freakier reaches….

Some books I've kept because the binding is beautiful - I'm unlikely ever to read my grandmother's copy of 'The Life of Lord Nelson.' I'm addicted to….

Being in Harlem on the night of Barack Obama's election was extraordinary. It was the best street party I have ever gone to, and it felt like the per….

I think it's important for all culturally literate people to understand the technological substrate of new developments..

I like moral judgment to emerge from the reader. We are being sold a very simplistic morality by our leaders at a time when nuance and understanding ….

These days we're all hyper-aware of the canonical way in which stories are supposed to play out - people are taught all about three-act scripting and….

There's an explosion of Indian fiction of all kinds, from military thrillers to chicklit. I think that's exciting..

There's nothing New York likes more than a thing. Or a place. Or a place that's a thing. Or a thing that happens to be a place..

Critchley and Webster’s fierce, witty exploration of Hamlet makes most other writing about Shakespeare seem simpleminded..

In my early teens, science fiction and fantasy had an almost-total hold over my imagination. Their outcast status was part of their appeal..

I stand on my public record as a defender of the human rights of Muslims, notably my work for Moazzam Begg and other British Muslims detained without….

I suffer from vertigo. It's paralyzing in extreme situations. The most scared I've been as an adult was trying to conquer that fear by going climbing….

I'm fascinated by the emergence of a global class. They're highly mobile; they reject the idea of place..

Intellectuals who live in Hungary, or who wish to work or lecture there, are extremely circumspect in their criticism..

When I try to understand somebody, create a character, I fall into them. When I think writers are telling me what to think, I get harrumphy..