That's the miracle of fiction. I use it to spray on certain moments or places from my youth.

A novelist's lack of awareness of and critical distance to his own body of work is due to a phenomenon that I have noticed in myself and many others: as soon as it is written, every new book erases the last one, leaving me with the impression that I have forgotten it.

I've always had the wish, the nostalgia to be able to write detective novels. At heart, the principal themes of detective novels are close to the things that obsess me: disappearance, the problems of identity, amnesia, the return to an enigmatic past.

Recently, I looked back at my first manuscripts and was struck by the lack of space, of breath. That's exactly how it felt, back then... like I was suffocating.

The breadth and scale of the capabilities we provide end-to-end across strategy, consulting, digital, technology, and operations are absolutely unique in the marketplace. And this is why Accenture remains the partner of choice for the world's leading companies in executing large-scale transformation programs.

I'm a huge gadget freak. I look on CNet literally every day to see what new gizmos are out there. I love technology. I'm constantly e-mailing. I've got the iPhone.

First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy? Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us - especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change? Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?

The worst is when you read things on the Internet blogs, because people don't hold back. Sometimes you read wonderful things, but sometimes it's really awful stuff. Like on the Fashion Spot, for example, people always comment on you. They forget that we might read that stuff.