Well, writing was what I wanted to do, it was always what I wanted to do. I had novels to write so I wrote them.

Here I was into astronomy, and here into anthropology, and there I go into geology. It was much more fun to be able to research and write about whatever I wanted to.

Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyse yourself, get rid of hostilities and frustrations in public, and get paid for it

No one was going to stop me from writing and no one had to really guide me towards science fiction. It was natural, really, that I would take that interest.

And I have this little litany of things they can do. And the first one, of course, is to write - every day, no excuses. It's so easy to make excuses. Even professional writers have days when they'd rather clean the toilet than do the writing.

I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.