The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.

'Blind Curve ' the book I'm working on now sprang from a crazy incident that happened to me last year while on my book tour. I was pulled out of my car for a minor traffic violation - an incident that escalated into my being thrown into cuffs and told I was going to jail. Except in my story the hero doesn't get off as easily as I did.

I enjoy racing historic motorcars from the '50s and '60s. The seed of my interest was planted when I was about 12 years old and took over my mother's Morris Minor. I drove it around my father's farm. But my favorite car is still a McLaren F1 which I have had for 10 years.

Canadians tend to be a bit more religious than most Europeans - though not more than the Poles or Ukrainians. Most important their attitude to immigration and ethnic minorities is more positive than that of most Europeans.

When I was in my 20s it did occur to me that there was something perverted about an attitude that thought that killing somebody was a minor offence compared to kissing somebody.

I'm drawn to furniture design as complete architecture on a minor scale.

In the first 50 years of the filibuster it was used only 35 times. But the last Congress alone had 112 cloture motions filed plus threats of more. This is the tyranny of the minority.

The majority does not rule in America but the minority shouldn't hijack it. And it's because we're afraid. They have isolated us and made us feel as though we're alone. We're not.

The funniest racism is the racism between minorities. It's something you don't see dramatized but almost every minority I know who's my age they have these funny stories about their parents stereotyping other minorities.