I have a large collection of town cars because when I was just a snipe in the gutter, growing up in Los Angeles, a town car drove by. I remember running in the house to get my mother so she could see it. It was utterly magnificent.

When I was in the military, I socked away $100 every month. When I was discharged in 1954, I got home at 5 A.M. By 10 A.M., I was pulling out of a foreign car dealership in Pasadena in a new Jaguar XK120.

My job is to entertain the readers in such a manner that, when they reach the end of the book, they feel like they've gotten their money's worth.

It's a job. I entertain my readers. I get up in the morning, and I start typing.

Airline travel is hours of boredom interrupted by moments of stark terror.

I understand that space travel and expansion is just as much about altering ourselves, our attitudes, our social structures, our very biology, as it is about altering the places we choose to live.

If you have to write a fictional adventure to convey a philosophy of evil, the best person is the destroyer of evil himself, Lord Shiva.

There are still many places I haven't seen that I'd like to travel to. I've never seen the Pyramids, and I'd love to explore the culture in North India. I think walking in the Andes would also be awesome.