Science fiction is a dialogue, a tennis match, in which the Idea is volleyed from one side of the net to the other. Ridiculous to say that someone 'stole' an idea: no, no, a thousand times no. The point is the volley, and how it's carried, and what statement is made by the answering 'statement.' In other words — if Burroughs initiates a time-gate and says it works randomly, and then Norton has time gates confounded with the Perilous Seat, the Siege Perilous of the Round Table, and locates it in a bar on a rainy night — do you see both the humor and the volley in the tennis match?

Writing day and night for months… that’s hard.

Nothing's hopeless except never trying.

Watch out for a man whose enemies keep disappearing.

Average people didn't analyze what they thought: they thought they thought, and half of it was gut reaction.

I most fear stupid people. Stupid people will do anything. Truly smart people will do only what is logical for them to do.

Remember, constantly, that when you talk about 'tense of a subjunctive,' you're not talking about time. You're slipping through degrees of reality.