The money can be decent, but I really don't recommend the work-for-hire route as an entry into publishing. Too many things can go wrong.

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.

When you are angry try your best to go to sleep, it keeps you away from speaking, writing and thinking while you are angry.

No Spring nor Summer beauty hath such grace As I have seen in one Autumnal face.

When I was 20, I wanted to be famous and win a Grammy and have people respect and love me.

Before enlightenment, I used to be depressed; after enlightenment, I continue to be depressed.

You cannot be on one hand dedicated to peace and on the other dedicated to violence. Those two things are irreconcilable.

The time has arrived when patience becomes a crime and mayhem appears garbed in a manner of virtue

Democracy is the fig leaf of elitism.

I've had moments of thinking maybe I should go on Twitter. It's something that I've been shy about, and I've thought that maybe I should do it.

There are no degrees in honorableness. You either are or you aren't.

I wish we could be decent to each other.