Lately I've been working to convince myself that everything is a computation.

Unfortunately our nation, nay, our world, is run by evil morons.

If you think of your life as a kind of computation, it's quite abundantly clear that there's not going to be a final answer and there won't be anything particularly wonderful about having the computation halt!

One of the nice things about science fiction is that it lets us carry out thought experiments.

Traditional science is all about finding shortcuts.

In any case, A New Kind of Science is a wonderful book, and I'm still absorbing its teachings.

The hard fact is that not everyone does get published.

It's soothing to realize that my mind's processes are inherently uncontrollable.

But how does it feel to plug into a system that's say, a million times as smart as a person.

All living things are gnarly, in that they inevitably do things that are much more complex than one might have expected.

I like a book better if I can't predict what's going to happen.

Electronic distribution is more of a fall-back strategy for putting out a book that isn't deemed profitable enough to print. You hardly make any money publishing an electronic book.

I like to do things that are surprising and different.

Selling a book or story has never become absolutely automatic for me.

A computation is a process that obeys finitely describable rules.

Science fiction writers put characters into a world with arbitrary rules and work out what happens.

Computations are everywhere, once you begin to look at things in a certain way.

If we suppose that many natural phenomena are in effect computations, the study of computer science can tell us about the kinds of natural phenomena that can occur.

Lately I've been working to convince myself that everything is a computation.

Now, being a science fiction writer, when I see a natural principle, I wonder if it could fail.

I think dry nanotechnology is probably a dead-end.

Advice to beginning SF writers? Write a lot, finish what you write, and when it's done, keep sending it out for quite awhile.

At present, however, I don't think the Net is a very good medium for books, books should really be inexpensive lightweight paperbacks you can bang around.

If all else fails, there's always print or web zines.

It's tedious to watch something very obvious being worked out, like a movie that's not particularly good and after about half an hour you know how it's going to end.

Some ideas you have to chew on, then roll them around a lot, play with them before you can turn them into funky science fiction.

All the dreamers in all the world are dizzy in the noodle.

I am a nerd among nerds.

Music is the soul of language.

I have a lot of regrets, but I'm not going to think of them as regrets.

I come from a line of great Sicilian women, and their mentality is to endure and push through to the other side.

Well documented, the relationship of literature to myth in the Western world has undergone much change over the millennia, as first the age of gods fell away before the notion of a single god, and then, for many people, that single god slipped away, too.

As the ancient commander addressed his soldiers before battle, so should the moralist speak to men in the struggle of the era.

We have to confront the very scary fact that the president is a moron. He's really dumb.

I don't believe in brands.

A computer shall not harm your work or, through inaction, allow your work to come to harm.

The only true non-conformists are in the asylums; the only radically free spirits are in the death house awaiting the chair. We live by patterns.

There was a time when no difficult subjects were ever aired in the 'Lady', and sadly, life isn't like that.

I don't think policy makers surprise unnecessarily. You don't pick surprise as a part of your policy. Markets value a certain amount of predictability. But there are certain areas where surprise is a tool.

I think I'm representing a new generation of Latinos - bilingual, bicultural people.

Religion is induced insanity.

God's good. He can just pull a life out of a pit, can't He?

Sex is a big question mark. It is something people will talk about forever.

I have several close friends who are insomniacs. Over the years, I've heard their stories about being up in the middle of the night, completely awake. I see them yawn at 11 A.M. and know that, regardless of what they are doing, they'd probably rather be in bed sleeping. I've always had sympathy for them, but I've never really understood it.

I told the students that whatever they did in class was for the wastebasket.

There are crossroads in life were choosing the direction to pursue is critical.

I always keep thinking, 'The next role - that's going to be the one that's really going to define me and show them all. I'll transform and disappear, and it will be a revelation.'

As far as artists and musicians, they don't retire. They might tour less.

Rufus Wainwright is my go-to for any kind of emotion. He's got songs for all of it.