And so The Snow Queen also became a story about the need to seek equilibrium, in our own lives, with the natural world, even within the universe at large.

It doesn't matter. I'm not asking forever of you...just let me love you now.

Don't worry. You're safe now. You've got nothing left to steal.

Beyond that, I seem to be compelled to write science fiction, rather than fantasy or mysteries or some other genre more likely to climb onto bestseller lists even though I enjoy reading a wide variety of literature, both fiction and nonfiction.

Perhaps the thing that makes humans truly unique on Earth is that we are never satisfied with our situation; maybe that is what's taken us so far.

The contradictions are what make human behavior so maddening and yet so fascinating, all at the same time.

The mers were also designed to reproduce only at long intervals, in order to maintain the natural balance of the environment in which they were placed.