In Such Seconds Of Decision Entire Futures

Speaking As A Novelist Myself, I Know That Members Of Our Profession Live In Our Imaginations As Much Or More As We Inhabit What People Call 'the Real World.

When I Get About Five Readers I Can Rub Together In One Genre, I Leave That Genre And Go Somewhere Else. And This Is Due To A Vow That I Made Myself When I Started Writing - That If I Had Any Success At All, I Would Not Be Bound To One Form Of Writing. That I Would Write What Moves Me. The Only Way I Can See Me Surviving And Doing More Than One Book Is To Present The Readers With A Dan Simmons Novel, With Whatever Tropes And Protocols From Whatever Genre I Want To Borrow Them. If That Builds A Dan Simmons Readership, Well Then, Okay. Otherwise, Forget About It. I'd Rather Drive A Truck.

We Are Not The Only Avatars Of Humanity. Once Our Computing Machines Achieved Self-consciousness, They Became Part Of This Design.

The Never-ending Competition Between Writers Hasn't Changed Between 1868 And 2000. I Used To Belong To Writers' Workshops With Other Professionals, But That Becomes Impossible After A While. Everyone's On A Different Step Of The Career Ladder. Jealousy Doesn't Have To Erupt Into Murder And Burying Someone In Wells Cathedral, But It Is Always There.

Every Age Fraught With Discord And Danger Seems To Spawn A Leader Meant Only For That Age, A Political Giant Whose Absence, In Retrospect, Seems Inconceivable When The History Of That Age Is Written.