Whatever happens, they say afterwards, it must have been fate. People are always a little confused about this, as they are in the case of miracles. When someone is saved from certain death by a strange concatenation of circumstances, they say that's a miracle. But of course if someone is killed by a freak chain of events -- the oil spilled just there, the safety fence broken just there -- that must also be a miracle. Just because it's not nice doesn't mean it's not miraculous.

The author can always delve into his own personality and find aspects of himself with which he can dress his characters.

A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.

Night poured over the desert. It came suddenly, in purple. In the clear air, the stars drilled down out of the sky, reminding any thoughtful watcher that it is in the deserts and high places that religions are generated. When men see nothing but bottomless infinity over their heads they have always had a driving and desperate urge to find someone to put in the way.

His sister had been sent down to the village to ask Mistress Garlick the witch how you stopped spelling recommendation.

Privilege (to the privileged) means having private laws.

I got into science fiction by being interested in astronomy first.