The outspoken British novelist Ian McEwan is no stranger to controversy, but he seemed somewhat taken aback by the anger he encountered after a recent speech that touched on identity and gender politics.

"Call me old-fashioned," he said in the post-speech Q&A, "but I tend to think of people with penises as men."

That did not go over well. Many called the remarks offensive to transgender people.

​"I might as well have denied the Holocaust for the storm that followed what I thought was a self-evident remark," he said in an interview with The National's Wendy Mesley. Still, he did qualify his remarks to say he thought that "most" people with a penis are men.

Despite the ruckus, McEwan isn't shying away from his opinions, opinions he seems to share with the central character in his latest novel, Nutshell.

That character is a fetus that doesn't think much of "safe spaces" and other university policies promoted as ways of keeping marginalized groups from feeling threatened.

"I think it's just becoming hypersensitive," McEwan said. "I think young kids ... should be prepared to hear opinions that are not their own and should not feel threatened by opinions that are not their own."

"It means thinking beyond the fragile, threatened, little bubble of the self."

You can watch the full conversation with Ian McEwan on CBC-TV's The National on Sunday or by clicking here.