Iain Banks est en interview sur le web ici. Il parle de la Culture.

"PP: How did you begin to construct the Culture?
IB: It was largely a reaction to a lot of the science fiction I'd read. The American stuff was excitingly gung-ho and optimistic, but mostly too right-wing. I thought then - and think now - that it's faintly hilarious that so many science-fiction writers happily imagine wild advances in every field of human endeavor, except economics and politics. The British form was usually more thoughtful, but too often pessimistic and dreary. I convinced myself I could combine the strengths of each, and also that there was a moral high ground within space opera that I would reclaim for the left."