Very little in science fiction can transcend the gimmickry of a technical conceit, yet without that conceit at its heart a book is not truly science fiction. Furthermore, so little emerging thought and technology is employed by sf writers today that the genre is lagging far behind reality both in the cosmology area and the technology area: sf is no longer a place to experiment, but is now very derivative.

Don't blame yourself, or worry. Neither does a bit of good.

Be careful what you pray for.

This is for you. A mage named Randal told me to give it to the Band if you ever came back. 'It surmounts evil,' he told me, 'keeps doom at bay.'

Gods and politics are the tools with which the godless and unprincipled manipulate the gullible.

If, as you teach, the universe has no beginning and no end, why should we?

War's balance will prevail.