I am interested in power and in the idea of one country exerting power over another. The Soviets took this to an extreme..

I've written over 100 short stories. You could say I'm obsessed with short stories..

There has been corruption in the Belgian civil service and at government level for decades. The Royal family do what they can to hold things together….

The short story feels like the most natural length for prose fiction, or certainly for the kind of ideas and situations I like to encounter..

I always have lots of zany ideas for promotional stuff as publication nears..

I have no patience with up-themselves authors who complain about having to trail round a few bookshops signing stock..

I love experimental writing, when it's good, and good examples are much more likely to be found in the short form..

Belgium is a country with a split personality..

I was interested in the ways that artists responded to totalitarianism - the Czech Jazz Section, Romanian absurdist theatre, Brecht's alienation effe….

I was particularly drawn to Berlin because of its literal, concrete division. Two halves making a whole, or two entities that were altered doubles of….

The idea that a student can write a sonnet or a novel without having a sound understanding about its history, and where it fits into literature as a ….

Increasingly, those who used to teach and write critical or theoretical texts are writing fiction, poetry and so on; and kinds of texts are being pro….

Who was it recently invented some machine that will enable her to sign a book from 5,000 miles away? Margaret Atwood. Get off your arse, love, and si….

The Belgians tend to downplay the cultural divide issue, and the far-right issue, but there's a staggering degree of casual racism in Belgium, much w….

I never know exactly where I'm going with a story, whether it's a short story or a novel. If I did I'd soon grow bored of it. The fun, for me, is in ….

I only like naturalistic stories. I love short, fantastic stories that cast a spell over the reader, that transport you instantly to another place wi….

What the short story needs above all is for one of the big publishers to get an equivalent series up and running and to support it and promote it..

I'm not trying to write cinematic novels, but I have been told several times that my style is cinematic..