Life doesn't retreat.

Nobody gets beyond a petroleum economy. Not while there's petroleum there.

But I think, and hope, that the novels can be understood and enjoyed as science fiction, on their own terms.

Losing our ignorance can be dangerous because our ignorance is a shield.

The never-ending competition between writers hasn't changed between 1868 and 2000. I used to belong to writers' workshops with other professionals, but that becomes impossible after a while. Everyone's on a different step of the career ladder. Jealousy doesn't have to erupt into murder and burying someone in Wells Cathedral, but it is always there.

As long as my sixth graders showed an average improvement of five years, the principal and district pretty much left me alone to create my own curriculum and teach whatever I wanted

All of our lives are governed by a certain degree of faith in bullshit.