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

But in fantasy, you can make a complete break, and you can put people in a situation where they are confronted with things that they would not confront in the real world.

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.

Having a mother who had been an aeronautical engineer convinced me that more things should be open to women.

No, but a cello is the perfect string bass for an accordion. Works with it beautifully.

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