Ann Leckie

“I'd say my biggest influences are writers like Andre Norton and, particularly when it comes to the Radch, C.J. Cherryh.”

“I've always enjoyed making up stories, especially when I was bored and just sitting around. It got really serious after the children came along.”

“I love science fiction, and one of the things I love about it is that it's so very different. You can read stuff that's just fast-paced adventure, and the characters are cardboard, but who cares, because they're heroes, and we love it. And you can read stuff that's really deep character, and everything in between.”

“Working for several years as a waitress, you learn really quickly a couple of default scripts, so you know exactly what the interaction is going to be when the person sits down at the table.”

“'Fountain of youth' is actually kind of ambiguous - does it mean a way to make everyone healthy and let them live indefinitely? Or are we talking about something that would reset you physically to the way you were in your youth, which for various reasons not all of us would be enthused about?”

“Fortunately or unfortunately, NaNoWriMo requires you to write at a breakneck pace, so I got used to just pushing on through.”

“My taste in both is pretty eclectic. I do encourage people to try new and different kinds of tea if they can - there are so many different sorts, and so many, flavored or not, and there's bound to be something you like. The same with choral music, really.”

“I've been a fan of Jack Vance since before I was in high school.”

“When I need to get away from my desk, I tend to take walks or go places. I also like to bead - working with beads to make jewellery.”

“Ships have feelings.”

“What, after all, was the point of civilization if not the well-being of citizens?”

“I do realize the impulse to classify people by the food and art they consume is strong - sometimes I have to remind myself not to do that.”

“I read way, way more Andre Norton than could possibly have been healthy. It was a short hop from her to the rest of the library's science fictional and fantastic holdings.”

“Good necessitates evil.”

“Writing books can be very individual - one might strike you as helpful that someone else found useless, or that you might not have appreciated at some other time in your life.”

“In the nineteen years since then, I had learned eleven languages and 713 songs. I had found ways to conceal what I was—even, I was fairly sure, from the Lord of the Radch herself. I had worked as a cook, a janitor, a pilot. I had settled on a plan of action. I had joined a religious order, and made a great deal of money. In all that time I only killed a dozen people.”

“Occasionally, I hear grumbles about everything being a series or a trilogy, but apart from the question of them maybe selling more books, I think that there's a real problem in trying to introduce a new world or a new concept while also getting your reader to pay close attention to your characters and themes.”

“Writing was something I always as a kid thought would be fabulous and glamorous to be a writer.”

“Now, I personally enjoy a really good footnote.”

“I can't see potato chips being popular where there's not land to grow potatoes in or where frying in lots of oil isn't easy or convenient.”