Bruce Sterling is one terrific writer and he's relatively new, but I don't know how long he's been doing it; he probably doesn't need the publicity anymore!

That's the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers.

And every friend I've got has been writing Mars stories. It was pretty clear I'd never catch up.

The reader has certain rights. He bought your story. Think of this as an implicit contract. He's entitled to be entertained, instructed, amused; maybe all three. If he quits in the middle, or puts the book down feeling his time has been wasted, you're in violation.

I never got good at predicting what millions of people will suddenly decide is rational.

My problem with new writers is that it takes me five or six years to memorise the right names.

As for AIDS, it's a plague. We are human, we get plagues. They come along every so often, kill off two thirds of the population; in the next generation it's a quarter; after that it's a childhood disease.