Before I was reading science fiction, I read Hemingway. Farewell to Arms was my first adult novel that said not everything ends well. It was one of those times where reading has meant a great deal to me, in terms of my development - an insight came from that book.

I had read tons of science fiction. I was fascinated by other worlds, other environments. For me, it was fantasy, but it was not fantasy in the sense of pure escapism.

I was always good at math and science, and I never realized that that was unusual or somehow undesirable.

I love biomedical science, I love astronomy, and you can't really do much with those in a fantasy setting.

Science is his forte, and omniscience his foible.