If you disagree with your government, that's political. If you disagree with your government that is approaching theocracy, then you're evil.

There's blood, a taste I remember. It tastes of orange popsicles, penny gumballs, red licorice, gnawed hair, dirty ice.

I don't think it's a question of whether you eat meat. It's a question of what kind of meat, and where it comes from.

Come away with me, he said, we will live on a desert island. I said, I am a desert island. It was not what he had in mind.

I have never had any problems with editors who wanted me to change my methods or point of view. I pay a lot of attention to editors, but in a different way. They sometimes catch mistakes and help with the order of poems in a book. I do not underestimate them! Indeed, I have been one myself.

Every utopia - let's just stick with the literary ones - faces the same problem: What do you do with the people who don't fit in?

Of course (said Oryx), having a money value was no substitute for love. Every child should have love, every person should have it. . . . but love was undependable, it came and then it went, so it was good to have a money value, because then at least those who wanted to make a profit from you would make sure you were fed enough and not damaged too much. Also there were many who had neither love nor a money value, and having one of these things was better than having nothing.