Alternate future universes

“There are no private lives. This is a most important aspect of modern life. As a science fiction writer, dealing with the future, I want to speak to this. That one of the biggest transformations we have seen in human life in our society is the diminution of the sphere of the private. That we must reasonably now all regard the fact that there are no secrets and nothing is private. Everything is public”.

“Science fiction involves a suspension of disbelief that is different than involved with fantasy. In fantasy, you never go back to believing that there are trolls, unicorns, witches, and so on. But in science fiction, you read it, and it’s not true now but there are things that are not true now that are going to be someday. Everybody knows that! And this creates a very strange feeling in a certain kind of person —a feeling that he is reading about reality, but he is disjointed from it only in temporal terms. It’s like all science fiction occurs in alternate future universes, so it could actually happen someday”.

“I write because there are not enough people in the world who can give me enough companionship”.

“The basic thing is, how frightened are you of chaos? And how happy are you with order?”