Most publishers seem very reluctant to publish short story collections at all; they bring them out in paperback, often disguised as novels.

I found some time ago that I have to be careful, while working on a novel, what I read.

The future, according to some scientists, will be exactly like the past, only more expensive.

An artist's life is supposed to lead toward his masterpiece, not away from it.

I think these days an SF connection would be a boost to other books; I'm sure more people have read my two little detective puzzles because of the SF connection.

SF has at least the advantage of not depending on preconceptions.

In most conventional novels, God is not allowed to be nuts. Nor are nuts allowed to be God.

I have a kind of standard explanation why, which goes like this: Science fiction is one way of making sense out of a senseless world.

Whatever I'm reading at the moment seems to influence whatever I'm writing.

The problem and privilege we all have is being alive in this century and able to read this language. It makes any list meaningless except the list of an illiterate.

People have laughed at all great inventors and discoverers.

Choosing to be an artist . . . is choosing to mine deep caverns. It's like getting lost in the darkness and spending the rest of your life trying to find your way.

Protection and security are only valuable if they do not cramp life excessively.

Indulging in unrestrained and immoderate laughter is a sign of intemperance, of a want of control over one's emotions, and of failure to repress the soul's frivolity by a stern use of reason.

We do things when it is our time to do them. They do not occur to us until it is time; they cannot be resisted, once their time has come. It's a question of time, not motive.

When you got a cell phone you stopped making plans. 'I'll call you when I get there.'

Sometimes that's a year, sometimes it's 18 months, where all I'm doing is taking notes. I'm reconstructing the story from the back to the front so that I know where the front is.

I feel like I haven't done my best work yet. I feel like there's a world of possibilities out there.

Love is life believing in itself

People want you to be ordinary.