"I started out writing much more science fictiony stuff and writing about science fiction."

"The moment that you feel that just possibly you are walking down the street naked...that's the moment you may be starting to get it right."

"The biggest difference between England and America is that England has history, while America has geography."

"There's a glorious sense of freedom in comedy, just allowing myself to tell jokes, allowing myself to interrupt myself and tell old African folk stories that I made up - or didn't - and Jamaican stories."

"We are justified in enforcing good morals, for they belong to all mankind but we are not justified in enforcing good manners, for good manners always mean our own manners."

"It is a steadfast truth that stillness is not emptiness; it is the presence of unencumbered clarity."

"Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions."

"Marriage brings up all the things I pushed to the back burner - the fears, the mistrust, the doubts, the insecurities. It's like opening Pandora's box."