I'm saying that you should send out, today, the best work you are capable of doing today. Of course you'll do better a year from now. But a year from now you should be writing the story that you care about and believe in at that time -- not reworking THIS year's story.

You grow a whole lot more as a writer by getting old stories out of the house and letting new ones come in and live with you until they grow up and are ready to go. Don't let the old ones stay there and grow fat and cranky and eat all the food out of the refrigerator. You have dozens of generations of stories inside you, but the only way to make room for the new ones is to write the old ones and mail them off.

Even though they're dressed up in costumes and often include people who don't dress for success, the audiences at [science fiction] convention panels and events are generally a good deal brighter than the population at large, and they can smell a phony from fifty yards away.

Die Menschen haben ihr Gehirn nicht entwickelt, um an Seen herumzuliegen. Töten ist das Erste, was wir lernten. Und wir haben gute Arbeit geleistet, oder wir wären tot, und die Tiger beherrschten die Erde.

There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer.