"There's psychology in anything if you're creating believable characters, but there's an enormous amount that's important that happens outside you, and science fiction and fantasy and detective novels and romances tend to be about action."

"My problem with realism is that a realistic novel about the psychological problems of middle-class people is a story which is very similar to the life I'm leading, and thus is not too interesting.  Whereas the minute you throw in a dragon or global warming, it becomes very interesting."

"We have split in the 20th century between genre fiction, which tends to be about action, and fiction that's about interpersonal relationships and psychology."