My wife, Jill, and I have an incredibly close working relationship, and an incredibly happy married one. We met through work. I was the world's worst advertising copywriter. She had the misfortune to be my account director, so from the very start she was my boss, and she still is.

Once you get into the world of dystopia, it's hard to avoid plagiarism, because other people have had such powerful visions.

I'm not a huge fan of prequels and sequels and the cynical rush to make money on the back of books by other writers who are now dead.

I have a great belief in not doing anything unless I'm passionate about it.

My greatest fear is disappointing the reader, so each book has to be better than the one before.

I'm not happy unless I have a pen in my hand, it's really that simple.