women who write scientifically responsible and socially daring fiction that encourages us to see our own world and its many possible futures in startling new ways

I think my work habits come from my time as a fisherman. When I’m writing, that’s pretty much all I do until I drop and sleep and get up and do it again until it’s finished. There really is an analogy to be made here with fishing. A fisherman goes out every day. The ocean covers up the fish pretty well, so it’s kind of an act of faith. You throw your line in the water and hope there are fish down there. There were yesterday, so you figure there’ll be something down there today. As a writer, you’re doing the same thing. You think there’s something under there and you’ve got to fish it out.

I think everybody has a vision of mankind, of life, of whatever it is. Part of the process of writing is not so much to explain your vision but to discover it. I think that’s what you do when you write: you find out what you think.