So if we have anything original to offer it's to speak from our own life about the society we're in.

That's what the Romney plan is all about how to get jobs created how to get this debt and deficit under control how to revive small businesses so we can create jobs and how to bring growth and opportunity to society instead of this class warfare instead of speaking to people like they're stuck in some class or station in life.

There is nothing more fearful for the average person in our society than to stand before a group of people and speak.

My mother-in-law speaks not a word of English. I speak not a word of Tajiki. So I smile at her ingratiatingly and she fixes me with a beady eye.

Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. Either we use those languages or we remain mute.

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.

Strictly speaking the idea of a scientific poem is probably as nonsensical as that of a poetic science.

The most watched programme on the BBC after the news is probably 'Doctor Who.' What has happened is that science fiction has been subsumed into modern literature. There are grandparents out there who speak Klingon who are quite capable of holding down a job. No one would think twice now about a parallel universe.

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.

It's really sad for me that in the United States the Latino community is losing its culture and language especially among kids born here - a lot of them can't even speak our language.