Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away.

Two questions form the foundation of all novels: "What if?" and "What next?" (A third question, "What now?", is one the author asks himself every 10 minutes or so; but it's more a cry than a question.) Every novel begins with the speculative question, What if "X" happened? That's how you start.

The extraneous duties, in a sense, were the job.

Anyone can deceive us .... for a time.
[KGB]

Comrade, you can deceive us. Anyone can―for a time. But not a very long time.

We cannot fail to win unless we fail to try.