You should let dialogue get as nearly out of control as you can. Characters should say what they say to each other instead of what they mean to say. The worst purpose of dialogue is to elicit information: "You know why we're out on this space station, Carruthers - to save the universe!"

It's easy to create a country, all you have to do is to think of a name for it

You don't want to depend on an editor. If you want to regret something for the rest of your life, you want to make sure you're responsible for it.

The lessons I learned that were most important were the ones that hurt my feelings.

The things that you know more about than you want to know are very useful.

The desires of the heart...are as crooked as a corkscrew.

There’s only one subject for fiction or poetry or even a joke: how it is. In all the arts, the payoff is always the same: recognition. If it works, you say that’s real, that’s truth, that’s life, that’s the way things are. ‘There it is.’