Literary Birthday – 6 October – David Brin

Happy Birthday, David Brin, born 6 October 1950.

Quotes

1. I find humans tremendously interesting.
2. My education and background thoroughly inform my writing.
3. Predicting has a spotty record in science fiction. I’ve had some failures. On the other hand, I also predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of fundamentalist Islam… and I’m not happy to be right in all of those cases.
4. Beware of self-indulgence. The romance surrounding the writing profession carries several myths: that one must suffer in order to be creative; that one must be cantankerous and objectionable in order to be bright; that ego is paramount over skill; that one can rise to a level from which one can tell the reader to go to hell. These myths, if believed, can ruin you.
5. If you believe you can make a living as a writer, you already have enough ego. Don’t let too much of it prevent you from seeking the feedback you need in order to keep honing your craft.
6. It is said that power corrupts, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.
7. Creative people see Prometheus in a mirror, never Pandora.
8. My first duty is to write a gripping yarn. Second is to convey credible characters who make you feel what they feel. Only third comes the idea.
9. I like to be surprised. Fresh implications and plot twists erupt as a story unfolds. Characters develop backgrounds, adding depth and feeling. Writing feels like exploring.
10. Information is not like money or any other commodity. The cracks that it can slip through are almost infinitely small, and it can be duplicated at almost zero cost. Soon information will be like air, like the weather, and as easy to control….

David Brin is an American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. Many of his novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. They include The Postman and Earth.

Source for Image

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_Brin_at_ACM_CFP_2005dsc278c.jpg

Glogger at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

by Amanda Patterson

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