Words Were Like Objects, Making The Idea

The Best Advice That An Accomplished Writer Could Give A Beginning Writer Is Probably, "find Your Slide And Then Grease It." Almost Every Writer That Wants A Rewarding Career, In Terms Of Money And Status And Number Of Readers, Finally Finds A Certain Genre Or Certain Style That He Or She Sticks With Until Reaching A Critical Mass Of Readership. And I've Violated This From The Get-go.

You've Probably Heard About The Theory Of Steam-engine Time - That Even After The Steam Engine Had Been Invented, It Had To Wait Until People Were Ready To Make Use Of It. The Same Thing Happens In Literary Circles. The Truth Is, I'm Not Terribly Interested In Victorian Times; I'm Interested In Victorian Writers. I'm Interested In Most Eras Of History, But Not The Victorian Era Especially. I Was Interested In The John Franklin Expedition. I Was Interested In These Last Five Weird Years Of Dickens' Life. And I Just Have To Take The Age That Comes With All That When I Write About It.

The Truth Is, It's Not A Great Career Move To Create A Readership And Then, In Effect, Abandon Them.

You Have To Live To Really Know Things, My Love

No One Inspired Me To Write, But Writer Harlan Ellison Terrified Me Into Getting Published.