I would like to say that I have software that allows me to model worlds to a high degree of scientific plausibility. I'd also like to be six foot two and fifteen years into my reign as Emperor of Europa. The simple truth is that past the character's name and a long history of making my own body cover distances, I did very little in the way of targeted research.

Science fiction is really a rather tiny business compared with its giant cousin, which is fantasy.

Occasionally, I'll dream I'm in the factory. That will help me write. Not creatively, but more like a prod. I don't want to go back there.

For honest insight into who you are, don't ask yourself what your priorities are for next week. Ask what your priorities were last week.

This is a slow business to have success in. There are exceptions, but for the most part it's kind of like the last writer standing.... I've got gray. I've got plenty of gray. I'm creating a career slowly, like a coral reef.

How could anyone survive even a single day, if he didn't feel as if he was, in some little great way, needed?

I live for those rare and delicious moments when the words on the page take off and I am the bystander, watching as the tale shows me what will happen next.