Why do you think people like to have sign of writer in their books?
I've never known the answer to that one!

But you are still signing it!
Sure. The Customer Is Always Right. Mad, maybe, but right.

Do you have any free time? How does your typical day look like?
Busy...I spent far too much time dealing with the business, and no enough time writing. In fact I get more writing done on holiday than I do at home, because there are fewer disturbances.

How much time takes you interview like this? ;-)))
Too much. Some of the people are quite dumb, and seem to think that because they've got my email address of course I must give them an 'interview'. And they never do research first.

Here in Prague, it seemed to me as if you are little bit tired by a Discworld series.
What made you think that?

There was full aula of people who wanted to speak about Discworld, or better they expected you will speak about it, but your answers were very short, and you spoke about other things.
That has more to do with me being aware that I was talking to a lot of people who don't have English as their first language, and there is a limit to what you can do via a translator. And why not speak about other things?

Isn't it boring answer the same questions again and again? Or are there differences among meetings with your readers?
There are always difference. It's not dull.

Which kind of music do you like?
Heavy metal, folk music, classical -- I've got fairly wide tastes. Can't stand rap.

Why? You dislike big guys with big cars in big houses who are singing about misery? :-)))
While wearing their hats backwards in a menacing way, yo!

What do you think about a club culture (techno and house music, extasy, marihuana and all of that stuff)?
It's mostly crap.

I think every generation want to be different (young people would say better) than previous one. Don't you think it's only reaction on the state of the world?
Well, Sixties culture was mostly crap, too. It's not good unless your parents don't like it:-)

What you think about 20th century on its end, and what about a future?
I think we're lucky to have survived!

Are you using technologies? PCs, Internet, cell phones? Do you think they help us, or is it only another way to waste the time?
Well, you can use them to waste time if you wish, but I find them all pretty useful.

Kevin Warwick in his book "March of The Robots" predicts, that machines will take control over the world in next 50 years. Aren't you afraid about this side of technological progress?
If we're dumb enough to let them take over, we deserve what we get. But we rely on them already to a very great extent. Technological progress frightens me far more than the lack of it. You might think the Middle Ages looked goo, but I don't want to go back there...

What you think about extraterrestrial intelligencies?
I think there are some. Terrestrial intelligence is sporadic at best, however.

:-) Why you think stupidity almost every time wins?
Because there's so much more or it, and people have short memories.

Is there a way to have a contact with them, or is it only a dream?
It's a dream, but it may be possible.

If there is a contact possible, what do you think is the most probable scenario?
I think they will take a long time to come a long way, and they won't be very like us at all.

Do you think they will want to eat us?
All that way for a quick snack? I doubt it.

What you think about ecological activities? Do you think it makes sense, when people are trying to save some animals, when natural enviroment of it is completely destroyed?
I don't think many natural environments are completely destroyed, and I think the impulse to preserve species is a good and human one. It's not a natural one, though -- nature has killed off millions of species.

All right, but balance which preserve all that species alive was destroyed, or corrupted by humans. Now humans are trying to "safe nature" using the same tools which cause this corruption. Do you thing it will works?
No, Nature without any help from us has already killed off millions of species on this planet through radical climate change, impact, volcanic activity and so on -- most of this happening before we evolved. Nature doesn't care. That's not how it works. In the long run, we can't save any species -- because there will be another catastrophe, such as a cometary impart, despite anything we do. But it is a good and human thing that we try, sometimes, to go against the time of universal destruction.

Do you think that our civilization - as we know it - will destroy itself? Or, will the 'progress' (whatever this word means) continue? Do you think there are limits?
I think it will change itself. As for limits, we can do an awful lot if we don't fill the planet with humanity.

And last question: are your books ready for Y2K? ;->
Just don't be reading them at midnight:-)