The big new development in my life is, when I turned 80, I decided I no longer have to do four pages a day. For me, it's like retiring.

The science fiction method is dissection and reconstruction.

The big new development in my life is, when I turned 80, I decided I no longer have to do four pages a day. For me, it's like retiring.

I'm pretty catholic about what constitutes science fiction.

For someone to be taken seriously it was valuable to have the appearance of someone who deserved to be taken seriously.

I did that for 40 years or more. I never had any writer's block. I got up in the morning, sat down at the typewriter - now, computer - lit up a cigarette.

They were two lovely choices. One of them meant giving up every chance of a decent life forever...and the other one scared me out of my mind.