Being published is a bit like being entered into a race you don't even want to run, but, once running, can't help but not want to lose.

We told our members that if you're not running, you need to help out [at the Piece of Cake race or the National Marathon].

I'm just fascinated by the past. You know, both by the possibilities it holds and by the complete tyranny of it, the way it sort of keeps you in this stranglehold and makes you want things that you no longer have and you can never get back.

With twenty six letters, you can create anything you like - any person, any world, any place, any emotion. And they are so potent, so powerful, and at the same time, they're marks on the page, and that's all. There's nothing else to them.

What I always liked about Socrates was his insistence on questioning things for the sake of reaching some sort of clarity - even if it is only clarity about the gaps in our knowledge.

I wouldn't mind the rat race - if the rats would lose once in a while.