Hard to be a physics major at Rice University if you have flunked calculus.

I had, of course, no model for that sort of woman being married, but I can make that up as I go along.

Other people, including me, have written books with main characters who were old and rich. Or old and brilliant. Old sages, old wizards, old rich people.

I love biomedical science, I love astronomy, and you can't really do much with those in a fantasy setting.

There are relatively few science fiction or fantasy books with the main character being an old person.

No matter what I do, no matter how predictable I try to make my life, it will not be any more predictable than the rest of the world. Which is chaotic.

In a novel, I could submerge my ego in a characters and let his perceptions take over.