We sat around on a hotel balcony with a bottle of wine and tried to figure out how you would go about blowing up a planet. That's the kind of conversations science fiction writers have when they get together. We don't talk about football or anything like that.

I landed a job with Roger Corman. The job was to write the English dialogue for a Russian science fiction picture. I didn't speak any Russian. He didn't care whether I could understand what they were saying he wanted me to make up dialogue.

It cannot be said often enough that science fiction as a genre is incredibly educational - and I'm speaking the written science fiction not 'Star Trek.' Science fiction writers tend to fill their books if they're clever with little bits of interesting stuff and real stuff.

Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable solutions are not.

I think it's a terrible thing to write and not enjoy it. It's a sad thing. But of course a lot of people do work because they need to eat. And we all need to eat but that's not the only reason to work. You couldn't have paid me not to write.

And the sad truth is that nobody wants me to write comedy. The Exorcist not only ended that career it expunged all memory of its existence.

If I could be more vague I'd write more about people in my life but I hate hurting feelings or making people feel uncomfortable. I've done that before. Unless they're sad songs. Those get finished fast but the mean ones often end up at the back of the bottom drawer and it's probably for the best.

I found out about reviews early on. They're mostly written by sad men on bad afternoons. That's probably why I'm less angry than some writers who are so narcissistic they consider every line of every review even a thoughtful one as major treason.

I like 'Bewitched' off the first album because it's one of the happiest songs I've ever written and as any writer will tell you happy songs are a million times more difficult to write than sad songs.

I think coldness is chic among writers and particularly ironic coldness. What is absolutely not allowable is sadness. People will do anything rather than to acknowledge that they are sad.

It can be really powerful to write something when you're sad.

I so desperately hate to end these movies that the first thing I do when I'm done is write another one. Then I don't feel sad about having to leave and everybody going away.

It's sad when you can't make everyone happy though. It's impossible but at the same time you still hope. You think 'Maybe I can do it ' but you know you can't. But gosh if I had to rely on giving people what they wanted I would have had to write 40 billion different books and even then I wouldn't get it right.

I think a lot of people think that my parents' deaths is why I write such sad songs but that's not true. Those songs may just be the woman I am.

As a songwriter I hate this whole 'If it's a sad song it has to sound like a sad song thing.' And that goes all the way back to my days with the Format. I'm an insane narcissist so if I have to get something off my chest I'll get something off my chest.

It's much easier to write when you're sad. But you can end up isolated and depressed because you almost need to put yourself in that situation to have that angst to write from.

Falling in love is awesome but I'm never drawn to happy songs per se so whenever you sit down to write a heartbreak song and you're happily in love it's like 'OK now I have to go back to a sad place to get something good.'

That is sad until one recalls how many bad books the world may yet be spared because of the busyness of writers.

The writing career is not a romantic one. The writer's life may be colorful but his work itself is rather drab.

When I start to write words have become physical presence. It was to see if I could bring that private world to life that found its first expression through reading. I really dislike the romantic notion of the artist.

The romantic idea is that everybody around a writer must suffer for his talent. I think a writer is a citizen of humanity part of his nation part of his family. He may have to make some compromises.

My goal on my bucket list is to write a romantic comedy movie.

It's easier to write from my own life and it's also more fun. I always write about relationships for instance whether they're romantic relationships friendships encounters... there's always a lesson to be learned from them.

It's a very romantic sentiment but to think that you would die if you didn't write well I would definitely choose to not write and live.