“Because we build the worlds we wouldn't mind living in. They contain scary things, problems, but also a sense of rightness that makes them alive and makes us want to live there.”

“But I will say that living in Ireland has changed the cadence and fullness of speech, since the Irish love words and use as many of them in a sentence as possible.”

“But Ship Who Sang remains my favorite story. I really rocked folks with that and still cannot read it aloud myself without weeping at the end.”

“I also don't have organized religion on Pern. I figured - since there were four holy wars going on at the time of writing - that religion was one problem Pern didn't need.”

“I did not have a chance to write novels until my youngest child started school fulltime.”

“I didn't raise Todd to be a writer, but he happened to be one anyway.”

“I do outlines when I'm writing with someone, but they also need to have a certain amount of freedom.”

“I don't often reread my own books, unless I am going into another in the series and need to refresh my mood when originating the concept.”

“I have a shelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens.”

“I have always used emotion as a writing tool. That goes back to me being on the stage.”

“I have my good days and my bad days, but I don't have as much energy as I used to back when I was young and foolish and didn't count the cost - and it takes a lot - to write.”

“I have written my own screen version of Pern, but had no buyers yet.”

“I think the Internet, particularly the availability of information, is great. I do a lot of correspondence on-line and have a chat line to talk to my fans as well.”

“I think writers need windows on a view to remind them that a whole world is out there, not the minutiae with which they might be dealing on a close scale.”

“I would recommend the short story form, which is a lot harder to write since you have to be so careful with words, until there is plenty of time to doodle through a novel.”

“I wouldn't encourage new writers to start off publishing through electronic media... it still isn't wide enough for the readership they would need to get a good start.”

“I'm 78, I'm on my pension in Ireland, and all that good stuff.”

“I'm very fond of the Talent series, and also the Crystal Singer trio.”

“Make no judgements where you have no compassion.”

“Mostly I'm telling people that they don't have to be victims.”

“People have freaked out when I tell them that my dragons are scientifically based... what else can you call a genetically engineered life form?”

“That's such a thrill - a story I wrote at the beginning of my career, and it's still packin' the house.”

“That's what writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put down on the page and believing that it does, or could, exist and you want to go there.”

“The thing is, emotion - if it's visibly felt by the writer - will go through all the processes it takes to publish a story and still hit the reader right in the gut. But you have to really mean it.”

“What I used to do between writing fits was feed my kids, ride my horse and go shopping for cat and dog food.”

“Writing has been so much a part of my life that I'm really quite annoyed that I can't do as much as I used to.”