I can't tell you any more than any other writer can tell you why they write, and I don't know what my influences are.

Though my books are written from a historical perspective, I have goon so far back that I am in the realm of prehistorical speculation rather than simple historical fact to weave my stories around.

You learn to write by writing, and by reading and thinking about how writers have created their characters and invented their stories. If you are not a reader, don't even think about being a writer.

Life sometimes gets in the way of writing.

She lifted the drooping muzzle with both hands...It was a special embrace saved for special occasions.

Life is neither static nor unchanging. With no individuality, there can be no change, no adaptation and, in an inherently changing world, any species unable to adapt is also doomed.

I think of my books as mainstream and that's were most people who read them look for them in book stores.

Of the two, I would think of my work as closer to Science Fiction than Fantasy.

I have heard Science Fiction and Fantasy referred to as the fiction of ideas, and I like that definition, but it's the mainstream public that chooses my books for the most part.

I don't write for publishers, certainly not for critics, and not for readers, But I am delighted that so many people have found my books enjoyable and want to continue to read them.

From the beginning, when I first got an idea for a story and wondered if I could write it, it has always been the story that has driven me.

i'm only an independent woman when there's nothing heavy to carry

If I were a writer and not a singer in 10 years, I don't know how I'd feel about writing really personal songs and getting someone else to sing them.

If we value what we've inherited for free - from other women - surely it's right morally and ethically for us to wake up and say, 'I'm a feminist. '

If no one cares for you at all, do you even really exist?

[On Cantor's work:] The finest product of mathematical genius and one of the supreme achievements of purely intellectual human activity.

I think a lot of us can relate to not choosing to face a painful memory, and something that's a painful past, and wanting to pretend like it never happened.

I think doing a female Elf in the Woodland realm was a bit safer, because we haven't met one of those yet.

Ideas are always more important than money.

I won a lot, crashed a lot, and broke just about every bone in my body, but I gave it everything I had

With freedom goes responsibility, a responsibility that can only be met by the individual himself.