John Scalzi
When I was 10, I was hit by a car, which turned my right tibia into a jigsaw puzzle.Collection: Car
Do what you need to do and enjoy life as it happens.Collection: Life
When I'm writing a novel or doing other serious writing work, I do it on a schedule that dictates writing either 2,000 words a day or writing until noon. After I hit whichever mark comes first, then I can give my attention to everything else I have to do.
I do think people of good will can have different opinions but still be coming not from a place of malice.
As a reader, I have a very short attention span and a low tolerance for boredom, and I find that comes in handy with my writing. If I get bored writing something, I pity the people who will then try to read it.
People start panicking because they think it's the end of everything. But the fact is, you know, books survived movies; books survived TV. Books are surviving manga and anime. Books will always be there in one form or another. You just have a larger palette of entertainment options.
By the time I'm 75 and I have a new hip, and my eyes are laser cleaned of cataracts, I wont think I'm a bionic man. I think that's just how technology works. The posthuman future of humanity will not announce itself; it will just creep up on us.
The more I want a book to be done, the faster I type because I just want to get it out.
I think that what I do, in terms of how I craft my words rhetorically, is fairly simple stuff. I don't mean that to denigrate myself. I mean that in the sense of, when I write, the person that I keep in mind is my mother-in-law.
I don't keep a Bucket List. I'm open to anything.
I grew up in southern California in the '80s. Yes, I am a walking cliche.
Ultimately, the first, best step in getting your work noticed is to write good work. If people don't engage in your writing, no amount of serialization or free downloads is going to matter. You have to write something worth reading, and often it takes time to get at that level.
I can describe to you the taste of government cheese.
I will not let my sales figures dictate what I say on the blog, because the blog is what I want to say.
There's always been a little bit of tension between the writers of science fiction literature and then science-fiction televised shows or movies, partly because they have a different dynamic.
It took me eight books to finally be at a point in my career where I could come out with a book and say, 'This is meant to be a funny book,' and we didn't have to make any bones about it.
I would say I'm a medium-sized 'Star Trek' fan. I love the universe that it's created.
The way that I write novels in particular is I don't usually outline; I just write. Part of the fun is discovering what's happening in the story as I'm going along.
I tell people the first time I decided to write a novel I was in my mid-20s, and it was, 'Well, it's time to see if I can do this.' I basically flipped a coin to see if I was going to write science fiction or if I was going to do a crime novel. The coin toss went to science fiction.
People are worried about their bodies. They're worried about disease. They're worried about how they are able to get out and participate in the world.
People imagine that there are rituals, like lighting candles or sacrificing chickens. They really just want to know what the magic formula is for writing. I inevitably disappoint them by saying you just put your butt in the chair, and you write 500 words a day, and then you get up and repeat it the next morning.
I'm perfectly fine with the fact that lots of young folks are wanting to watch anime and read manga. I'm perfectly happy that they are doing things online, reading there as opposed to traditional print magazines.
What we need to do, as writers, is find out where our market is and adapt to it. I'm not saying that you follow every trend slavishly, but what you see is that, if there is a sea-change in the way that things are being done, then you account for it.
Humor is rare in science fiction... there's so little of it that it automatically reminds you of other heroes with that acerbic humor when you find it.
Many of the writers who have inspired me most are outside the genre: Humorists like Robert Benchley and James Thurber, screenwriters like Ben Hecht and William Goldman, and journalists/columnists like H.L. Mencken, Mike Royko and Molly Ivins.
Reddit is not a public utility or a public square; it's a privately owned space on the Internet.
Personally speaking, when everything is boiled down to the marrow, I think the reason Reddit tolerates the creepy forums has to do with money more than anything else.
I find it difficult to believe that Redditors don't understand that anonymity online is merely a facade; indeed, it's probably one of the reasons that revealing the identity of pseudonymous Redditors is looked on as such a huge betrayal.
I know a little bit about deaf culture because a friend of mine has been in the deaf culture for awhile. Over the course of 25 years, she and I have talked about many of the issues and concerns for deaf people and deaf culture.
I don't think we're at the point where most people are willing to get rid of body parts and replace them, but then again, people who shoot lasers in their eyes come out with better-than-perfect vision.
Engrave this in your brain: EVERY WRITER GETS REJECTED. You will be no different.Collection: Writing
If you want me to treat your ideas with more respect, get some better ideas.Collection: Ideas
There's a difference between the fact that the universe is inherently unfair on a cosmic level, and the fact that life is unfair because people are actively making it so.Collection: Differences
I am not responsible for actions of the imaginary version of me you have inside your head.Collection: Action
I didn't mind getting old when I was young. It's the being old now that's getting to me.Collection: Mind
I'm not insane, sir. I have a finely calibrated sense of acceptable risk.Collection: Risk
Christianity is a fine religion and I wish more Christians practiced it.Collection: Christian
I don't care whether I really exist or don't, whether I'm real or fictional. What I want right now is to be the person who decides my own fate.Collection: Real
Part of what makes us human is what we mean to other people, and what people mean to us.Collection: Mean
Never anger a sci-fi writer. These people destroy entire planets over lunch. Imagine what they'll do to you.Collection: Lunch
If your flirting strategy is indistinguishable from harassment, it's not everyone else that's the problem.Collection: Flirting
Libertarians secretly worried that ultimately someone will figure out the whole of their political philosophy boils down to “Get Off My Property.” News flash: This is not really a big secret to the rest of us.Collection: Philosophy
When you're a teenager and you're in love, it's obvious to everyone but you and the person you're in love with.Collection: Love
If the universe is bigger and stranger than I can imagine, it's best to meet it with an empty bladder.Collection: Stranger
The original sin of Republicans is greed. Everyone understands greed. Everybody wants to get theirs. The original sin of Democrats is pity. Greed is more attractive, and a better motivator, than pity.Collection: Greed
When you're a kid all you want to do is be somewhere else.Collection: Kids
Sooner or later the Narrative will come for each of us.Collection: Narrative
Don’t discount that part of who he was just because you didn’t know it. None of us are all of who we are to any one person.Collection: Who We Are
Now, you may think that this is some sort of generalized hatred that I will carry for the lot of you. Let me assure you that this is not the case. Each of you will fail, but you will fail in your own unique way, and therefore I will dislike each of you on an individual basis.Collection: Unique
You would rather face a life without me than to have me choose a life I would not choose for myself.Collection: Faces