This is terrible, when a writer is bored by his own work, but it was a real bomb and had reached the point where I couldn't even stand to look at it any more.

I've reached a place with my work where I'm ready to concentrate more on life.

Life without any wonder left in it is flat and stale.

When they ran out of cadre men they gave me my very own platoon and said, 'Here are 63 men, try to keep as many of them alive as you possibly can.' That was one of the more harrowing experiences of my life.

If the general opinion is pessimistic, fantasy is going to hold its own.

Even a moderniser like Alexander II - who emancipated the serfs in 1861 - had no intention of devolving real power.