No one likes it, apart from blind people, and I'm sure even they can sense it's profound ugliness as it passes by.

You see, that's the whole point of being in government. If you don't like something you simply make up a law that makes it illegal.

Look at the sky. It’s not dark and black and without character. The black is, in fact deep blue. And over there: lighter blue and blowing through the blues and blackness the winds swirling through the air and then shining, burning, bursting through: the stars! And you see how they roar their light. Everywhere we look, the complex magic of nature blazes before our eyes.

We are taking a business-as-usual position at my agency, though business before 9/11 wasn't that hot either!

I tend to turn down books originally published as e-books. As for selling books directly to e-book publishers, I would do so only if all traditional publishers had turned them down.

It's always a mistake for writers to key their submissions to world events, because they move so quickly and unpredictably, as has certainly proven the case in Afghanistan.

Most writers can write books faster than publishers can write checks.