This is the result of six billion years of evolution. Tonight, we have given the lie to gravity.We have reached for the stars.

It's not going to do any good to land on Mars if we're stupid.

We are all . . . children of this universe. Not just Earth, or Mars, or this system, but the whole grand fireworks. And if we are interested in Mars at all, it is only because we wonder over our past and worry terribly about our possible future.

In sum, do not insult me with the beheadings, finger choppings or the lung-deflations you plan for my works. I need my head to shake or nod, my hand to wave or make into a fist, my lungs to shout or whisper with. I will not go gently onto a shelf, degutted, to become a non-book. All you umpires, back to the bleachers. Referees, hit the showers. It's my game. I pitch, I hit, I catch. I run the bases. At sunset I've won or lost. At sunrise, I'm out again, giving it the old try. And no one can help me. Not even you.

Surprise is where creativity comes in.

I believe in having fun first, and along the way, if you teach people, if you influence people, well and good.

Write a thousand words a day and in three years you'll be a writer!