"Historically, science-fiction and fantasy literature is no stranger to controversy, but it has learned how to adapt and endure."
"The reality is that much of the stuff you see in film, television, comics, and children's cartoons got its start inside the inspired, disruptive halls of science-fiction and fantasy literature."
"I've always been interested in the politics of war. War is one of those things that, the longer I studied it, the more illogical it seemed."
"I started writing 'God's War' knowing that I wanted to write about real people on a resource-strapped planet at perpetual war."
"I can't change the preconceived notions a reader brings to a work, but I can do my best to be aware of, address, and subvert tropes and expectations that readers may have as best I can and hope I don't screw it up too much."
"I think anger of any kind is valuable. It's all about learning how to channel it. The worst thing we can do is get bored or complacent or worse - suppress our anger and then see it burst forth in unhealthy ways."
"Short fiction isn't my natural form. It's taken a lot of work over the years to finally feel more comfortable writing stories under 80,000 words!"
"This is the biggest trick of the sort of thing I write: creating fun, powerful stories with tons of interesting stuff going socially and culturally that doesn't overly confuse the reader."
"Being a writer, writing for a living, is one long persistence game. Everyone wants you to quit. Quite often, you want to quit. You get kicked down. You come up swinging. You keep going. Either you are committed to it, or you aren't."
"As for the best '80s action movie, I'm going to be predictable here and say 'Die Hard.' I watch that movie at least twice a year. Perfect script."
"People interest me a lot: why we are kind, why we are cruel, how we learn the difference, what makes us act in ways contrary to those we've been socialized with."
"It's easier to say people are crazy than to try to figure out why."
"Folks will always, always, always go back to the comfortable status quo, with its silent voices and lack of conflict, if you give them the chance."
"Authors make stuff up. Let's not pretend it's any more magical than that."
"What makes a book unique isn't always about having one big grand new idea. It's about combining many different ideas in new and interesting ways."
"I'm the sort of writer who likes to leave doors open for readers."
"I enjoy challenging myself in new and different ways."
"I want to write books that keep people up at night, where they cry through the first forty pages and keep reading anyway."
"I'm a naturally lazy person, and I live for a challenge."
"I started writing books because I couldn't find the books I wanted to read on the shelf."
"I've told people before that I don't want to be a part of a genre; I want to be my own genre. I want to create it."
"I'm terribly particular about what I read: lush writing, secondary world or seriously far-out science fiction, strong worldbuilding, dynamic characters. I need to have it all for it to work for me."
"We don't fall in love with perfect people. We fall in love with complex ones."
"One of the things I stress to those I meet, especially young people, is that we are the heroes of our own lives, and we can be the masters of our own stories."
"Storytelling is a universal: every culture does it. There's a reason our religious books aren't simply a list of shall-and-shall-nots. Morals and teachings are contained in stories, which are studied, dissected, and passed down; we remember stories in a way we don't remember lists of facts."
