I remember being shocked when I discovered some of my school pals didn't have books in their homes. I thought it was like not having oxygen, or hot water.

I think a lot of people are frightened of technology and frightened of change, and the way to deal with something you're frightened of is to make fun of it. That's why science fiction fans are dismissed as geeks and nerds.

I've always loved Scotland, and I'm not a huge fan of big cities, to be honest. I like them to dip into for a bit, but I'm not sure I would want to live in one again.

In theory, I work an eight-hour day and a five-day week which means I can socialise with my pals who mostly have normal jobs like teaching and computer programming.

Science fiction has its own history, its own legacy of what's been done, what's been superseded, what's so much part of the furniture it's practically part of the fabric now, what's become no more than a joke... and so on. It's just plain foolish, as well as comically arrogant, to ignore all this, to fail to do the most basic research.

Technology determines the possibilities of society. It doesn't matter whether you start out from a fascist state or a communist state or a free-market state.

Torture is such a slippery slope; as soon as you allow a society or any legal system to do that, almost instantly you get a situation where people are being tortured for very trivial reasons.

You get so caught up in what you're writing - action sequences tend to do that more than anything else because you're living it, and feeling for your characters.

As a writer, you get to play, you get alter time, you get to come up with the smart lines and the clever comebacks you wish you'd thought of.

You have to have something worth saying and then the ability to say it- writing's a double skill, really.

A lot of what the 'Culture' is about is a reaction to all the science fiction I was reading in my very early teens.

By the usual reckoning, the worst books make the best films.

'Dead Air' is full of rants; it's a rant-based book. Yes, it's self-indulgence. I plead guilty; mea culpa.

I just come up with the stories and write them as well as I can. There's not really a great deal of strokey-beard thinking going on.

I still find it hard to understand that anyone could argue that you can't have machines that exhibit consciousness.

I still have some of my old University essays, and I do still have my drawing book from primary year seven.

I think the future stopped looking American when you think back to Blade Runner and Neuromancer, when it started to look more Japanese.

I think we need politicians; we need people who want to serve.

I wouldn't like to be a character in one of my books!

I'm an only child so am happy with my own company and I don't really get lonely.