“I love the detail about the workings of the human heart and mind that only fiction can provide - film can't get in close enough.”

“There are boys so enraptured by love that they can't get their hearts to slow down enough to get some rest, and other boys so damaged by love that they can't stop picking at their pain.”

“Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction. It's not a grand enough job for you.”

“One can't love humanity. One can only love people.”

“What I carry in my heart
Brings us so close or so far apart.
Only love can make love.”

“You can't think of the global and close your eyes to the details.”

“Niven made a name for himself as a hard SF author, which is to say, someone whose SF provides enough technical detail that the reader can be certain that various mechanisms and events couldn't work the way the author has them working.”

“Everybody looks a little crazy if you're looking close enough and if you can't look that close, then you don't really love them.”

“And when you get down to it, Lily, that is the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love but to persist in love.”

“A good opening and a good ending make for a good film provided they come close together.”