Once he saved a kitten from a burning building while fighting off KGB agents chasing him at 200 mph on the German Autobahn. They tried to steal his plans for a cold fusion reactor, for which he later received the Nobel Prize. Fortunately, this in no way hindered him from finishing the novel for which he was awarded the Booker Prize the following year, after helping Eli Lily with the clinical tests for a diabetes vaccine based on a formula that he had previously patented.
He likes to collect stamps in his free time.