The history of science fiction started in the caves 20,000 years ago. The ideas on the walls of the cave were problems to be solved. It's problem solving. Primitive scientific knowledge, primitive dreams, primitive blueprinting: to solve problems.

Venice was and is full of lost places where people put up for sale the last worn bits of their souls, hoping no one will buy.

Don’t try to write a novel. Write short stories and then figure out how to connect them.

Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.

And some day well remember so much that well build the biggest goddam steamshovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up.

Why would you clone people when you can go to bed with them and make a baby? C'mon, it's stupid.

Through lack of education, we're not teaching kids to read and write. So there is the danger that you raise up a generation of morons.