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Interview [published August 1999]
William Gibson: Waiting For The Man
Antony Johnston has a meeting of minds with the elusive William Gibson
about his novel All Tomorrow’s Parties
William Gibson needs no introduction. But he’s going
to get one anyway.
Gibson coined the term ‘cyberspace,’ visualising a
worldwide communications net 11 years before the
World Wide Web was born. His debut novel Neuromancer
won all three major science fiction awards – the
Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick – upon its release. He
is the first name that comes to mind when the term ‘Cyberpunk’
is mentioned, known and revered the world
over by authors, artists, rock bands and more.
Yet Gibson the man remains startlingly elusive. A
professional novelist for 15 years, he has published only
seven novels (one of which was co-written) and most
of his reputation remains, somewhat unfairly, rooted in
Neuromancer. He lives a quiet life with his wife and
children in Canada. In a staggering display of irony,
for many years Gibson refused to even have an internet
connection, saying the last thing he wanted after a day
staring at his word processor was to carry on using the
computer. Even now, at the height of his success and in
his mid-40s, he continues to quietly support innovative,
street-level art.
BUY William Gibson books online from and
But despite being trapped in a Leonard Nimoy-style
cage of Neuromancer’s success, Gibson continues to
innovate himself both in style and concept. He does not
rest on his laurels, and looks set to burst forth into the
popular mindset for a second time.
His latest novel, All Tomorrow’s Parties, is released
next month. He is continuing his work in television after
the success of his X-Files episode ‘Killswitch’. And
the highly-anticipated, oft-speculated film adaptation
of Neuromancer is finally entering production. He even
finally has an email address! What brought that on?
“I’ve just been avoiding it,” says Gibson. “Having
kids did it for me, I suppose. I couldn’t very well deny
it to them, so eventually we had three or four different
addresses in the house. It was difficult to avoid it, then.”
So can we assume William Gibson is ‘back for
good’? Like its two predecessors (Virtual Light and
Idoru) All Tomorrow’s Parties has taken nearly three
years to appear. Gibson admits he’s been somewhat
slow: “In terms of the speed which I’d always assumed
genre SF writers worked at, I felt I was hardly
producing at all. I took a break. Hiatus, as they say in
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