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.

In terms of stories I would buy for a science fiction magazine, if they take place in the future, that might do it.

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.

I was thinking of writing a little foreword saying that history is, after all, based on people's recollections, which change with time.

People as me how I do research for my science fiction. The answer is, I never do any research.

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.

The future depicted in a good SF story ought to be in fact possible, or at least plausible. That means that the writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true... and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you.