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.

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 found out about reviews early on. They're mostly written by sad men on bad afternoons. That's probably why I'm less angry than some writers who are so narcissistic they consider every line of every review even a thoughtful one as major treason.

I like 'Bewitched' off the first album because it's one of the happiest songs I've ever written and as any writer will tell you happy songs are a million times more difficult to write than sad songs.

I think coldness is chic among writers and particularly ironic coldness. What is absolutely not allowable is sadness. People will do anything rather than to acknowledge that they are sad.

As a songwriter I hate this whole 'If it's a sad song it has to sound like a sad song thing.' And that goes all the way back to my days with the Format. I'm an insane narcissist so if I have to get something off my chest I'll get something off my chest.

That is sad until one recalls how many bad books the world may yet be spared because of the busyness of writers.

The writing career is not a romantic one. The writer's life may be colorful but his work itself is rather drab.

The romantic idea is that everybody around a writer must suffer for his talent. I think a writer is a citizen of humanity part of his nation part of his family. He may have to make some compromises.