 Even if you only want to write science fiction, you should also read mysteries, poetry, mainstream literature, history, biography, philosophy, and science. |
| I went to college, though I didn't take many writing courses. |
| Working within the limitations of the shared world generally made the writing easier, because I didn't have to invent any of the characters or background, which is usually the hardest part. |
| I want a platform that, like a book or a magazine, I can carry into the bath or leave at the beach. |
| I was pretty much grown-up by the time I attended school in Britain - or as grown-up as I'll ever get. |
| I've experienced writer's block, but never for more than a few days. |
| An SF author who reads only SF will have little new to contribute, but someone with a broader experience will bring more to the table. |
| The Internet offers an interesting combination of advertising and community by participating in the community you can become an advertisement for yourself. |
| It's a tough job to tell a story when the audience already knows the ending, and the ending is bleak. |
| If you can find collaborators whose strengths compliment your own, the result can be more than the sum of its authors. |
| The mass-market paperback, for one, is too expensive. |
| How long it takes to write a book depends on its length. |
| Science fiction readers probably have the gene for novelty, and seem to enjoy a cascade of invention as much as a writer enjoys providing one. |
| I'm not afraid of werewolves or vampires or haunted hotels, I'm afraid of what real human beings to do other real human beings. |
| Everything that you read is an influence on everything you write, and you want to draw as many elements into your work as you can. |
| When state and religion are one, religion becomes a means for the powerful to remain in power. |
| It's hard to generalize, because they're all different. When I started, I decided to take as much advantage as I could of the freedom offered by the SF field. |
| I found college useful for a lot of other reasons. It exposed me to a great many influences I wouldn't otherwise have encountered, and gave me a lot of time with some very intelligent people whose thoughts are still with me. |
| Being a writer was never a choice, it was an irresistible compulsion. |
| Some of my ideas were shot down by Lucasfilm because they stepped on territory that has been reserved for the movies. I didn't have a problem with that. |
