My writing has to support more than my research habit, but I love to curl up with a book about some dusty corner of history.

I've read short stories that are as dense as a 19th century novel and novels that really are short stories filled with a lot of helium.

I'm dense when it comes to discouragement.

I do have a small collection of traditional SF ideas which I've never been able to sell. I'm known as a fantasy writer and neither my agent nor my editors want to risk my brand by jumping genre.

Ideas aren't magical; the only tricky part is holding on to one long enough to get it written down.

I'm a writer first and an editor second... or maybe third or even fourth. Successful editing requires a very specific set of skills, and I don't claim to have all of them at my command.

A good short-story writer has an instinct for sketching in just enough background to ground the specific story.

When I'm not writing or tweaking my computer, I do embroidery. When I'm not plunging into the past, tweaking, or embroidering, I'm reading books about history, computers, or embroidery.

During the many centuries that magic, here on this planet, was presumed to have worked, there were at least as many theories as to how magic worked as there were cultures and religions.

There is nothing that compares to an unexpected round of applause.

I think my prose reads as if English were my second language. By the time I get to the end of a paragraph, I'm dodging bullets and gasping for breath.

Nobody loves me but mama, and she may be jivin too.

Life is a deep and contemplative story stuck on repeat. love, loss, self-destruction, self-discovery

I am going to build something big for you.

...for the shield may be as important for victory, as the sword or spear.

Why do I ask for directions? Because I hate wasting time.

Music has always been a big part of my life. It's kind of like a refuge for me. I just use it to get away.

Life is like the Internet: sometimes is almost impossible to connect.

As the perfect parent, God suffers emotional pain when his creatures, created in his own image and likeness, rebel against him and do evil instead of good.

If we knew about the real facts and statistics of mortality, we’d be terrified.

Endure the present, and watch for better things.