I've been wanting to read this for absolutely ages, and library interloan has come through! Butler is a fantastic writer; I've never read a book of hers that I haven't loved. 

This particular book is a collection of interviews with Butler by journalists or reviewers or academics of one type or another. Naturally they focus on writing and science fiction, with questions of the "can you explain what you were thinking when?" and "what advice would you give to young writers" type. There is, it must be said, a great deal of repetition - there are only so many answers that Butler can give to very similar queries, and although her answers are always clear and often fascinating it was occasionally hard to resist the temptation to skim when the same story was told over and over. 

Her political views are particularly interesting, especially in the light of current events over in the US. The final interview ends with the line "It's a shame we have had people who are so damn weak" - referring to politicians from the left side of American politics (or the centre-right anywhere else) and their inability to effectively attack the greed and ignorance of their counterparts. The more things change...