In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.

In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.

I don't believe in the war god of the Israelites. He's a bogeyman. Jesus preached the golden rule, by and large.

It seems sensible to me that we should look to the medical profession, that over the centuries has helped us to live longer and healthier lives, to help us die peacefully among our loved ones in our own home without a long stay in God's waiting room.

My experience in Amsterdam is that cyclists ride where the hell they like and aim in a state of rage at all pedestrians while ringing their bell loudly, the concept of avoiding people being foreign to them.

The baby boomers are getting older, and will stay older for longer. And they will run right into the dementia firing range. How will a society cope? Especially a society that can't so readily rely on those stable family relationships that traditionally provided the backbone of care?

It seems that when you have cancer you are a brave battler against the disease, but when you have Alzheimer's you are an old fart. That's how people see you. It makes you feel quite alone.

I was a very keen reader of science fiction, and during the time I was going to libraries, it was good, written by people who knew their science.

Freedom without limits is just a word.

It's not morbid to talk about death. Most people don't worry about death, they worry about a bad death.

I didn't go to university. Didn't even finish A-levels. But I have sympathy for those who did.

Fantasy is uni-age. You can start it in the creche, and it follows you to death.

Knowing that you are going to die is, I suspect, the beginning of wisdom.

I was a very keen reader of science fiction.

It cannot be said often enough that science fiction as a genre is incredibly educational - and I'm speaking the written science fiction, not 'Star Trek.' Science fiction writers tend to fill their books if they're clever with little bits of interesting stuff and real stuff.

I am a great fan of science, but I cannot do a quadratic equation.

There is a soak-the-rich attitude in the air, a feeling that if you have a lot of money you must have got it by some ghastly means. I can quite happily say there was never any family money. All the money we got was mine, just from writing books.

I got into science fiction by being interested in astronomy first.

Previous generations understood about death, and undoubtedly would have seen a reasonable amount of death. Once you get into the Victorian era, you might well have seen the funerals of many of your siblings before you were very old.

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

The ideal death, I think, is what was the ideal Victorian death, you know, with your grandchildren around you, a bit of sobbing. And you say goodbye to your loved ones, making certain that one of them has been left behind to look after the shop.

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.

I've always felt that what I have going for me is not my imagination, because everyone has an imagination. What I have is a relentlessly controlled imagination. What looks like wild invention is actually quite carefully calculated.

In my heart, I'm just a kid from the council houses. I can remember the old cottage and my dad coming round with the tin bath. I'm not a rich man.

I have a living will and I have friends, and I have money and I have hope.

Never trust any complicated cocktail that remains perfectly clear until the last ingredient goes in, and then immediately clouds.