Kazuo Ishiguro says winning Nobel Prize "a magnificent honour"

British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro said winning the Nobel Prize for Literature was "a magnificent honour" and that he was in the footsteps of the greatest authors, the BBC reported on Thursday.

The 62-year-old author of "Remains of the Day", born in Japan and raised in Britain, was described by one of the members of the Swedish Academy which awarded him the prize as "an exquisite novelist".

Ishiguro told the BBC the prize was "flabbergastingly flattering", the broadcaster reported on its website.

"It's a magnificent honour, mainly because it means that I'm in the footsteps of the greatest authors that have lived, so that's a terrific commendation," he was quoted as saying.

He said he hoped the prize would be a force for good.

"The world is in a very uncertain moment and I would hope all the Nobel prizes would be a force for something positive in the world as it is at the moment," he said.

"I'll be deeply moved if I could in some way be part of some sort of climate this year in contributing to some sort of positive atmosphere at a very uncertain time."