Extrait :
‘‘I’m liberal even by Canadian standards, and Heinlein was conservative even by American standards, so there’s a light-year between us. The guy I think of myself as most similar to – in terms of trying to accomplish things, not stylistically – is Kim Stanley Robinson. Like me, I think, Stan is totally of the H.G. Wells school of science fiction: that it is a medium for social commentary. I think my trilogies are a little more action-packed than Stan’s utopias, but they are utopian! The absolute goal is to have them be optimistic roadmaps for the future.
‘‘I think the human race is going to have a great future, but I do worry about the future of novelists. People quit their day jobs to become a writer, but the harsh reality is that it’s easier to sell your first novel than your fifth. With your first, you might be (as I like to say) the next Isaac C. Heinlein. By the fifth, they know you’re not, so why bother giving you a raise? They’ll go get somebody new, and try another lottery ticket.”