I was never able to write seriously about heroes because I was very aware that I was not one and that in my background there was not this heroic thing.

I don't finish every story, but I probably write and send out three out of five of them.

I do think that short story writing is often a matter of luck.

I like to think that I have no single view nor any single situation that I think things arrive from. I try to give examples of what I think are interesting questions for me.

Wherever you go in the galaxy, you can find a food business, a house-building business, a war business, a peace business, a governing business, and so forth. And, of course, a God business, which is called 'religion,' and which is a particularly reprehensible line of endeavor.

It is a truism throughout the civilized galaxy that when you go to the police, your troubles really begin.

The British audience was very important to me. I have always looked away from American to non-American audiences and so this was important.