Life Doesn't Retreat.

Seduction... Was Both A Science And Art - A Blend Of Skill, Discipline, Proximity, And Opportunity. Mostly Proximity.

When I Get About Five Readers I Can Rub Together In One Genre, I Leave That Genre And Go Somewhere Else. And This Is Due To A Vow That I Made Myself When I Started Writing - That If I Had Any Success At All, I Would Not Be Bound To One Form Of Writing. That I Would Write What Moves Me. The Only Way I Can See Me Surviving And Doing More Than One Book Is To Present The Readers With A Dan Simmons Novel, With Whatever Tropes And Protocols From Whatever Genre I Want To Borrow Them. If That Builds A Dan Simmons Readership, Well Then, Okay. Otherwise, Forget About It. I'd Rather Drive A Truck.

Merely To Live Without A Pain Is Little Gladness, Little Gain, Ah, Welcome Joy Tho' Mixt With Grief-- The Thorn-set Flower That Crowns The Leaf.

Each Heart Has Its Graveyard, Each Household Its Dead, And Knells Ring Around Us Wherever We Tread, And The Feet That Awhile Made Our Pathway So Bright Pass On To A Land That Is Out Of Our Sight.

In The End--when All Else Is Dust--loyalty To Those We Love Is All We Can Carry With Us To The Grave. Faith--true Faith--was Trusting In That Love.