21 quotes
Three things are in your head: First, everything you have experienced from the day of your birth until right now.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
We must not let them go into the fourth and fifth grades not knowing how to read.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
The need for romance is constant, and again, it’s pooh-poohed by intellectuals.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
Science fiction pretends to look into the future but it’s really looking at a reflection of what is already in front of us.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
That’s the whole secret: to do things that excite you.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
Science Fiction is the fiction of ideas.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
I was able to do the job not because I was in love with Melville, but because I was in love with Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote Moby-Dick, using Melville as a Ouija board.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
I just can’t imagine being in a world and not being fascinated with what ideas are doing to us.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
I never have to worry about schedules. Some new thing is always exploding in me, and it schedules me, I don’t schedule it.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
In that film Love Story, there’s a line, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard. Love means saying you’re sorry every day for some little thing or other.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
My favorite writers have been those who’ve said things well.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
You can’t write for other people. You can’t write for the left or the right, this religion or that religion, or this belief or that belief. You have to write the way you see things.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
I went home and within days I started to write. I’ve never stopped.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
The problem of the novel is to stay truthful. The short story, if you really are intense and you have an exciting idea, writes itself in a few hours.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
You can’t learn to write in college. It’s a very bad place for writers because the teachers always think they know more than you do — and they don’t. They have prejudices.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
I sit there and cry because I feel that I’m not responsible for any of this. It’s from God. And I’m so grateful, so, so grateful.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
The great religions are all metaphor.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
I’m glad you’re back in my life.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
I don’t believe in optimism. I believe in optimal behavior. That’s a different thing.
The Paris Review interview (2010)