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.

Normal' is a dryer setting.

It may be far in the future, but there's some kind of logical way to get from where we are to where the science fiction is.

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.

Sometimes I wonder how normal normal people are, and I wonder that most in the grocery store.

I like it that order exists somewhere even if it shatters near me.

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