As a kid I wanted to write science fiction and I was never without a book. Later I really got into being a scientist and never thought I'd be writing novels.

Many writers upon the science of political economy have declared that it is the duty of a nation first to encourage the creation of wealth and second to direct and control its distribution. All such theories are delusive.

I would be more frightened as a writer if people thought my movies were like science fiction.

I've started a company called Tall Girl Productions and we've got our first project that is purely producing not writing with a writer named Evan Daugherty. It's for NBC it's called 'Afterthought ' and it's science fiction-ish. That's fun.

We sat around on a hotel balcony with a bottle of wine and tried to figure out how you would go about blowing up a planet. That's the kind of conversations science fiction writers have when they get together. We don't talk about football or anything like that.

I landed a job with Roger Corman. The job was to write the English dialogue for a Russian science fiction picture. I didn't speak any Russian. He didn't care whether I could understand what they were saying he wanted me to make up dialogue.

It cannot be said often enough that science fiction as a genre is incredibly educational - and I'm speaking the written science fiction not 'Star Trek.' Science fiction writers tend to fill their books if they're clever with little bits of interesting stuff and real stuff.

Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable solutions are not.

I think it's a terrible thing to write and not enjoy it. It's a sad thing. But of course a lot of people do work because they need to eat. And we all need to eat but that's not the only reason to work. You couldn't have paid me not to write.

And the sad truth is that nobody wants me to write comedy. The Exorcist not only ended that career it expunged all memory of its existence.