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 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.

Make no judgements where you have no compassion.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A good story is a good story no matter who wrote it.

At age 77, I need the help of someone with more energy than I can now summon to finish a book.

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 written my own screen version of Pern, but had no buyers yet.

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.