When I finished [writing it], I was crying. I knew at long last, after ten years of trying, I had written something good.

Edgar Allen Poe really started me when I was 8. I fell in love with everything of his.

I was not predicting the future, I was trying to prevent it.

Think of Shakespeare and Melville and you think of thunder, lightning, wind. They all knew the joy of creating in large or small forms, on unlimited or restricted canvases. These are the children of the gods.

You don't have to turn on the TV set. You don't have to work on the Internet. It's up to you.

Go out and make your own speeches. People need you. Go on TV. It can be done. After you speak up a few times, people say, "Hey, we got a crazy man in the community," and they'll begin talking to you.

As a result of reading science fiction when I was eight, I grew up with an interest in music, architecture, city planning, transportation, politics, ethics, aesthetics on any level, art...it's just total! It's a complete commitment to the whole human race on all the Earth. That's what science fiction is about.