In contrast, markets - oft mythologized as "natural" are the most unnatural things going. Libertarians will tell you "market laws are laws of nature", what baloney. Markets - and the other great modernist cornucopian tools - are magnificent wealth generating machines, built ad-hoc, through trial and error, constantly fine-tuned and refined, tinkered, adjusted.

When I begin a book, I inevitably discover many things along the way, about the characters, their past histories and the political intrigues that surround them. This discovery process is vital, and I would not prejudice it by deciding too much in advance

In the end, the work of diplomats continues even while others fight. So, it's not necessarily true that everyone needs to march.

Prison for the crime of puberty -- that was how secondary school had seemed.

If you have other things in your life-family, friends, good productive day work-these can interact with your writing and the sum will be all the richer.

Science Fiction is the jazz of literature.

Only people with full stomachs become environmentalists.