Martin Cruz Smith

I'd always been a great fan of George Orwell.

As a novelist, I tell stories and people give me money. Then financial planners tell me stories and I give them money.

Then there was the whole concept of coal mining, which is a culture unto itself, the most dangerous occupation in the world, and which draws and develops a certain kind of man.

I'm a big action junkie. I grew up on the '80s action movies - the bad ones and the good ones.

I've never said I'm a communist.

There's nothing more fun than sitting in a circle playing with people who are really into it.