I was very resistant to my intellectualism for a while. I do start with an intellectual idea for a character. A lot of the times, it'll be the opposite of what I feel like is on the page, or it'll be just an idea that I read in a psychology textbook or in a philosophy book. I'll apply something to it that I can start to tinker with.

I'm terrified of the ocean. I think it's beautiful and magical, but I never go in. That deep, dark water, with no understanding of what goes on behind it - I think that's a metaphor for a lot of things.

One of the things I've been interested in my whole career is exploring masculinity and what it means to be a man. The sensitivity of a man, but also the violence and power that goes along with it.

I really like big swashbuckling superhero films, but I feel like that Marvel universe is not adult enough.

The cancer doesn't bother me. I have great faith that the technology will beat it.

Bookstores will not disappear but will exploit digital technologies to increase their virtual and physical inventories, and perhaps become publishers themselves.

Entire books are being written about the distractions of social media. I don't believe media compel distraction, but I think it's clear that they afford it.

In the developing world, people often use quite basic technology. Many of the most imaginative schemes are using what we'd count as old tech.