For a successful writer, the secret is to have many irons in the fire. Write the next thing.

You want magic to feel real.

You need a human story to intersect those points of interest with real stakes on the line, and then things start to be fun, where you can see the ramifications, you see the impact on people's lives of big changes - like taking a man of science, like a surgeon, and robbing him of his understanding of the universe and forcing him into a newer and wider understanding.

Space and spacecraft and zero gravity and so forth are very difficult to render.

Directing offers you the hope that your vision will reach the screen, unmolested and intact. Therefore, it's tantalizing to all writers.

For a successful writer, the secret is to have many irons in the fire. Write the next thing.

I will never probably have the mathematical foundation to truly understand what string theorists are talking about, but it feels good, just for its own sake, to get as close to an understanding as you can.