By the age of 9 or 10, I knew that I had to cut my own cloth and make my own way.

When you're my age and you see a story, you better go for it pretty quickly. I'd just like to get a few more novels under my belt.

I don't know whether it's age or maturity, but I certainly find myself committed more and more to the looser forms of Western democracy at any price.

I mean, I'm in the business of storytelling, not message making.

More particularly, having a largely German-oriented education has made me very responsive to 19th-century German literature.