I thought that automobiles were going to have mufflers and go fast and airplanes were going to fly fast.

Right now I'm so old that if I had a big gush of money, I don't know what I'd do with it. I don't travel anymore. I don't need anything, don't want anything. I'd give it to my son, I guess, and let him enjoy it.

These are just the tip of the iceberg, because I read and read and read. I read everything.

I was a carpenter for a time and everybody watches what you do.

Sometimes some of these little side excursions are useful and I manage to fit them in the book somewhere.

I'd never been published when I was young.

But I'm so slow on it because I find it terribly hard writing blind on computers. The computer speaks to me, but it's just so slow, I'm so terribly slow using it.

A reader is not supposed to be aware that someone's written the story. He's supposed to be completely immersed, submerged in the environment.

I just wrote what I felt like writing since they seemed to sell.

There was a writer in the '20s called Christopher Morley, who I remember a little bit of, who had some influence on me, but I couldn't tell you what it was.

I do read books. I suppose it's more or less the same thing, but at least I'm alone and I'm an individual. I can stop anytime I want, which I frequently do.

I haven't been to a movie since somebody gave me free tickets to Star Wars, which I went to.

I never worked in an office in my life.

I thought that automobiles were going to have mufflers and go fast and airplanes were going to fly fast.

I haven't sold to the movies. In other words, I haven't gotten any enormous checks yet.

It seems to limit you; when you're working in an office, you're a creature in a small cell under somebody's supervision and surveillance.

But I've sure worked at jobs where I have been under inspection.

I never made lots of money at it, but I sold enough.

This flattery has been rather slow in coming. I think all of sudden late in life now I'm getting some credit for what I've done. Which is gratifying, but it's kind of a little late.

I worked for half a cent a word. I'm not a fast writer to begin with, so for the first few years I had do other things.

I was an omnivore at reading, so that everything I ever read contributed.

But Roy Rockwood, it was science fiction for the sake of science fiction.

I don't read other science fiction. I don't read any at all.

In fact, almost every job you get somebody watching you.

As I mentioned, I was a carpenter for a time.

The story was such that I couldn't make a graceful ending and then make a graceful new beginning. I could have, but I didn't want to. So, it isn't the most graceful way of writing a story. This new story is, I think, is pretty good stuff. I'm pleased with it anyway.

Then there was Clark Ashton Smith, who wrote for Weird Tales and who had a wild imagination. He wasn't a very talented writer, but his imagination was wonderful.

So I'll write it, and then I'll find out that I actually wrote something that is utterly useless. You can't use it in the story and it doesn't fit. So I just throw it away. I've done that countless times.

But, for instance, when I was awfully young, I read all the Oz books. They were an enormous influence on me.

I got done writing Ports of Call and suddenly realized I have far too much material for the book.

Well, I think everything I've ever read contributes to the background from which I write.

Happiness is fugitive dissatisfaction and boredom are real.

Freedom, privileges, options, must constantly be exercised, even at the risk of inconvenience.

I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me that they are wonderful things for other people to go on.

The thing is helicopters are different from airplanes An airplane by it's nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or incompetent piloting, it will fly.

All my life, I've never been able to get enough airplanes. This will keep me flying every day.

My dad served in two wars has been flying airplanes for 60 years now. He was certainly quite an inspiration.

I realized that If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.

My wife had taken off on a plane. Two airplanes had crashed into the World Trade Center. I, of course, like any other person, felt potentially devastated, panicky a little bit.

I've had a chance to fly a lot of different airplanes, but it was nothing like the shuttle ride.

I want to bring passengers on my airplanes to present to them my product.

Before we had airplanes and astronauts, we really thought that there was an actual place beyond the clouds, somewhere over the rainbow. There was an actual place, and we could go above the clouds and find it.there.

After the loss of Columbia a couple of years ago, I think we were reminded of the risk. All of us, though, have always known that the Space Shuttle is a very risky vehicle, much more risky than even flying airplanes in combat.

I thought that automobiles were going to have mufflers and go fast and airplanes were going to fly fast.

Nine g's is good, if the pilot can stand it. We couldn't stand it. Not in the airplanes of World War II.

Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value.

We've got gays working there. If they can demonstrate long-term relationships, we make same-sex benefits available just as we do with common-law marriages. Gays are productive people. Some fly airplanes, some work in breweries.

There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion.

It is just called Continuing Legal Education. You can go to lectures, you can even listen to tapes on airplanes - they want you to stay current. So you do have to stay current to maintain your license even if you are not practicing.