Liu Cixin: ‘I’m often asked – there’s science fiction in China?’

Author of sci-fi epic The Three-Body Problem – newly serialised by Netflix – on ‘the greatest uncertainty facing humanity’ and how finding a secret copy of a Jules Verne novel inspired his career

‘I get into trouble’: Gillian Anderson on being brave, her resting face and much anticipated book of sexual fantasies

Her uncanny portrayals of famous women have brought her legions of fans. Now, as she prepares to play Emily Maitlis in the pivotal Prince Andrew interview, the actor talks to Eva Wiseman about acting, soft drinks and ‘side hustles’

Mat Osman: ‘I wanted to write about a dirty, dangerous, working-class London’

The Suede bassist and author on writing without a safety net, terrifying himself for his next novel and which of the Thursday Murder Club books – by his brother Richard – he likes best

‘Organising is the best kind of antidepressant’: Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix on solidarity

The activists, who first met at Occupy Wall Street in 2011, talk about the limits of protest – and the power of connecting across difference to change the world

Serbian author Barbi Marković: ‘The real horror story is life itself’

The award-winning horror author on stealing from other writers, why she can’t stand pathos and how Mickey Mouse has inspired her new short-story collection Minihorror

‘I don’t think I developed emotionally’: Earl Spencer on the pain of boarding-school abuse

The brother of Diana, princess of Wales, talks about his difficult decision to write about being physically and sexually abused and the resistance he faced from members of his own class

The Rev Richard Coles: ‘I think my CV looks like the work of a fantasist’

The pop star turned vicar and radio host on his new career as crime novelist, missing the clergy and why his books speak to the anxiety of uncertain times

The Bee Sting’s Paul Murray: ‘Climate worry is the unavoidable background for being alive in the 21st century’

The Irish author, whose novel won the inaugural Nero Gold Prize, believes that no book can ignore the subject

Tommy Orange: ‘My whole family has had problems with addiction, including myself’

The novelist talks about his hit debut There There, and the shocking historical discovery about his tribe that inspired his follow-up novel

Joanne Harris: ‘Some of us don’t see the line between the books and the world’

As the author prepares to publish a prequel to her bestselling novel Chocolat, she explains why she engages with real-life political battles too

‘We are all mixed’: Henry Louis Gates Jr on race, being arrested and working towards America’s redemption

The US academic and TV historian’s rejection of racial categories has drawn criticism from some but his sense of mischief and underlying belief in American decency remains undimmed

Arj Barker on monkeys, nudity and men’s shorts: ‘I don’t want people to see my knees’

In a new interview series from Guardian Australia, we ask our favourite people a bunch of randomly selected questions. First up: a comedian and actor gets existential

Jon Cruddas: ‘Labour has to rediscover its moral purpose’

The Labour MP and party historian on why he worries for Keir Starmer, the decline of social democracy, and his love of Seamus Heaney

‘This secret that crippled me for 50 years has been lifted’: Lucy Sante on becoming a trans woman at 67

The American author and critic on being in a band with Jim Jarmusch, the macho pre-Aids world of the gay scene in New York, and on coming out to her wife and son

‘I wanted to save the world!’: Grace Blakeley, TikTok’s answer to Tony Benn

The millennial economist talks to Sam Leith about the perils of global capitalism, fighting her corner online and having a ‘midlife crisis’ at 29