Q. For more than 1,000 days, you have been under an all-points death sentence. What's it like to live like that?
A. Oddly, I don't that often feel afraid, although the first few days were very scary. But at some point I thought to myself, "If I spend my time being afraid and worried about where the bullet's going to come from, then I'm really going to go crazy." And then I said to myself, "I've got the best protection the British government can offer -- it's their job to worry about that. It's not my job." That was a kind of mental trick. What I had to worry about was mentally dealing with the threat and arguing my case and continuing to be what I am.
Q. And that worked most of the time?
A. Yes. I won't say there aren't moments when the other breaks through, because there obviously are. But by and large, day to day, it works.
Q. How often have you moved?
A. I haven't kept an exact count. There's a kind of legend around how I get moved every few days. It's never been as bad as that.
Q. But more than a couple of dozen times?
A. Oh, it's been a lot of places, sometimes for a few days, sometimes for longer periods. I've seen a great deal of Britain I'd never seen before. Where there are wide-open spaces, it's possible for me to get out and go for walks.
What I've tried to do is take very slow steps back toward as much of life as I can sensibly have. And that's a matter of instinct and judgment and discussion; the less said about it the better. But from the beginning I have felt the one thing that would be very dangerous to me would be to become an institutionalized prisoner, to give up control of my life to the people whose job it is to look after me. That's why I have constantly pushed against the bars of the cage and tried to make it a bit bigger.
Q. What social life is left?
A. It's almost entirely telephonic. I call friends.
Q. Do you read?
A. I read. To an extent, I still lead a writer's life.
Q. So in that sense life has not changed?
A. All my adult life, if I didn't have several hours a day to sit in a room by myself, I would get antsy and irritable. Now, that particular part of the day has spread to kill the whole day. I used to like the contrast between doing the work and getting out and having a very sociable life. So that's gone. And that's a real, obvious loss.
Q. Who takes care of your daily needs?
A. I can cook. And I have access to washing machines and dishwashers. Of course, I'm leading my life in premises that also contain armed policemen.
Q. Your own extended family?
A. Well, we get on very well. I'd never thought I would be in a situation where I'd have a lot of friends in the secret police. But we have shaped a relationship of mutual respect.
Q. How about your son?
A. Clearly, I miss him a lot. I wrote a book for him in this time because it was just about the only thing I could do for him. A lot of the normal requirements a child would have of his father I've been unable to discharge. I talk to him every day by telephone. But it's a huge deprivation, not just for me but for him. For the thing that has happened is also an assault on his rights.
Q. You say your marriage is over. Was that caused by your situation?