What Bradbury had that most other science-fiction writers didn't have at that time was a love for beautiful language, evocative description, and haunting phrases that would stick with the reader.
When I started publishing - my first novel came out in 1990 - there were no options for publishing science fiction in Canada. There were no small presses, and the large presses simply would not touch it at all.
Science fiction should not be dismissed as escapism. It is a profound vehicle for talking about social and political issues.
Many science-fiction writers, such as Gregory Benford, are working scientists. Many others, such as Joe Haldeman, have advanced degrees in science. Others, like me, have backgrounds in science and technology journalism.
I'm a fiction writer, and fiction is telling the lives of unreal people. But the only way you can learn to do that well is by really understanding the lives of real people.
Whether it's created in a lab, written by a programmer, or lands on the White House lawn as a visitor from the stars, if it acts like a human being, it is a human being.
I think most people are indifferent in their evaluation of what is good or bad.
There were four major 20th-century science fiction writers: Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein and Ray Bradbury. Of those four, the first three were all published principally in science-fiction magazines. They were preaching to the converted.
I'm a member of the Writers Guild of America and the Writers Guild of Canada.
The only shows that Americans watch in big numbers are shows about lawyers, doctors, or cops... People don't tune in to watch scientists unless they are forensic scientists.
I'm often characterized as an optimistic writer, and certainly my 'Neanderthal Parallax' and 'WWW' trilogies shade toward the utopian. I like to think that's not simple naivete, but rather a reasonable approach.
I really strived to give equal weight to the two halves of my genre's name: science and fiction.
Real people are complex, contradictory, and have their own motivations - they can't just be mouthpieces for the writers' point of view.
If you look at the United States, most of the country is pretty much uninhabited.
The traditional route to success in science fiction is by making a name for yourself in short fiction, so people who read science fiction magazines will recognize your byline on a novel.
The general public still thinks that science fiction has nothing to do with their day-to-day lives.
You fall into a black hole, and you are irretrievably gone from the universe. That finality has made it irresistible to writers.
Everything that I can do to ground the story in reality helps make it harder for people to be dismissive of it.
The fact we exist merely means we exist. That's all it means.
I started wondering why it is that people line up behind charismatic leaders. It's easy to understand the emergence of a figure who's narcissistic and compelling. But why people follow this person mindlessly - that was the hard question to me.
