It may be important to write a book that doesn't come up to what I would like to have rather than to write no book at all.

There are writers who say they have no social responsibility except to write a good book, but that doesn't satisfy me.

The sooner we can separate salvageable skeptics from self-righteous absolutists, the sooner we can move along.

Whoever declares another heretic is himself a devil. Whoever places a relic or artifact above justice, kindness, mercy, or truth is himself a devil and the thing elevated is a work of evil magic.

I'm not sure a world run by women would be any better. They're human beings!

Sitting down and weeping is what women have done for centuries, and it has done no good at all. Nor praying. God has given us the earth. He is not waiting in the next room, ready to fix it for us if we ruin it. If we do not care for it, no one will. On other worlds, other races of men perhaps do better than we have done. He cares for us, but he does not control what we do.

I have always lived in a world in which I'm just a spot in history. My life is not the important point. I'm just part of the continuum, and that continuum, to me, is a marvelous thing. The history of life, and the history of the planet, should go on and on and on and on. I cannot conceive of anything in the universe that has more meaning than that.