If science fiction is the mythology of modern technology, then its myth is tragic.

Skill in writing frees you to write what you want to write. It may also show you what you want to write. Craft enables art.

If civilization has an opposite, it is war.

Stories are what death thinks he puts an end to. He can't understand that they end in him, but they don't end with him.

There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.

There are dance artists, painting artists and writing artists. Authors are writing artists. You can practice art in whatever medium you choose, and words are mine.

For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead Kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no man earns reward. Free your mind of the idea of deserving, the idea of earning, and you will begin to be able to think.