When things are really dismal, you can laugh, or you can cave in completely.
I've never bought into any sort of hard and fast, this-box/that-box characterization. People are individuals. Yes, they may be expected to be a particular way. But that doesn't mean they're going to be that way.
Once upon a time, novelists of the 19th century, such as Charles Dickens, published in serial form.
A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.
If you're put on a pedestal, you're supposed to behave yourself like a pedestal type of person. Pedestals actually have a limited circumference. Not much room to move around.
There's a difference between describing and evoking something. You can describe something and be quite clinical about it. To evoke it, you call it up in the reader. That's what writers do when they're good.
Time is compressed like the fist I close on my knee... I hold inside it the clues and solutions and the power for what I must do now.
The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don't think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.
Reading and writing are connected. I learned to read very early so I could read the comics, which I then started to draw.
I learned to read very early so I could read the comics, which I then started to draw.
Reality simply consists of different points of view.
Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials. You need something scary to overcome.
You can examine the whole 19th century from the point of view of who would have maxed out their credit cards. Emma Bovary would have maxed hers out. No question. Mr. Scrooge would not have. He would have snipped his up.
Some bioengineering is good, especially if it results in plants that are more drought-resistant or perennial food crops.
I hate to tell you this, but you will never actually go to a galaxy far, far away and encounter Darth Vader. That's science fiction; it isn't going to happen.
Writers and books are cheap dates, especially when you compare the cost of a book with a ticket to the opera - or an NHL game.
The thing about delirium is you think it's great, but it actually isn't.
We have to rethink our whole energy approach, which is hard to do because we're so dependent on oil, not just for fuel but also plastic. If plastic vanished, there would be total chaos. We have to think quite carefully about using oil and its derivatives, because it's not going to be around forever.
Once you publish a book, it is out of your control. You cannot dictate how people read it.
Science and fiction both begin with similar questions: What if? Why? How does it all work? But they focus on different areas of life on earth.
