Every life has a destiny... the trick is to discover it before then end of your life. Otherwise, you will have too many regrets.

One of the things that was kind of shocking for humans... was to come to terms with was the fact that, hey, we may not be the center of the universe.

That's what people need to remember about reviewers; opinions can be all over the spectrum, and you just need to find a reviewer whose tastes match your own.

I wanted the feel in these books to be like an epic fantasy, with kings, queens, dukes and court politics, but of course like what I was explaining before, about making the science make sense, you have to make the politics make sense, too.

There is grand romance in The Lord of the Rings. It's an important part of epic literature.

I had a minor in Russian history, and this was at the time when the big Cold War was going on.

Wouldn't you like to have an augmented memory chip that you could plug into your head so you don't have to look everything up and remember everything?