I can become very emotional about math, although I'm not that good at it.

Having to struggle gave me the chance to demonstrate strength of character.

When I was starting out, I did not do short fiction well, because I kept wanting to write books.

One of my degrees was a science degree in biology.

You can also make explicit certain social problems which, again, would be prejudged or not encountered at all in real life, because people have set up defenses against it. Fantasy allows you to get past defenses.

I regarded drugs as somewhat like rattlesnakes - it's possible to pick one up without getting bit, but why bother?

I actually feel that the different kinds of stories come out of different parts of my brain.