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" I don't know why we choose to reach out to help another person, or why we decide that we can't, and withdraw and try to care only for ourselves, but I'm fascinated by that choice. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Care
Choice
Choose
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" I was interested in political failure here in the U.S. The way we're failing to work together to solve even our smallest problems, let alone the complex ones. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
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" When I think about myself as a writer, for sure I am a science fiction writer. The tools of extrapolation, the tools of anticipating the future - those are science fictional questions. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Science
Future
I Am
" I'm particularly interested in black swan events: unprecedented surprises that destroy the conventional wisdom about how the world works. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Events
World
Wisdom
" As far as 'Windup Girl' becoming a hit - none of us expected that. 'Night Shade' was just hoping not to lose their shirts, and I had grown up hearing from everyone that science fiction didn't sell, so all of our expectations were very low. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Science
Expectations
Girl
" When somebody keeps telling you, 'This book is amazing,' you sort of have this pleasing instinct to say, 'Oh, let me make you happy again; let me do that trick again.' "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Me
Book
Amazing
" I say I write extrapolations. I look at data points and ask what the world could look like. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Like
Look
Data
" I'm definitely writing my fears. It's almost therapeutic to at least voice a terror, to say, 'I'm worried that Lake Powell looks low and Lake Mead looks even lower.' "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Say
Low
Voice
" Teens want to read something that isn't a lie; we adults wish we could put our heads under the blankets and hide from the scary story we're writing for our kids. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Writing
Hide
Lie
" Science fiction has these obsessions with certain sciences - large scale engineering, neuroscience. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Science
Science Fiction
Engineering
" I think that we live in a highly specialized, technologically advanced society. Highly developed societies tend to have very remote understandings about what underlies our prosperity. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Our
Society
Think
" As a kid, I always liked reading stories where I had a power-projection fantasy. I wanted to be inside of a story where I had power and influence, was going to rise to power, was going to somehow influence my society. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Rise
Power
Influence
" There are parents who are really angry that I decided to portray people who have come into the country illegally as decent human beings. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Parents
People
Country
" I used to work for a newspaper that covered local resource issues, and my coworkers and friends were journalists. Their reporting work was always pretty grim. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Always
Work
Pretty
" The young adult category is particularly interesting to me in terms of science fiction and fantasy tropes. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Young
Me
Fantasy
" I'm really interested in how conflicts arise and how they reach points of no return. I'm no pacifist. Sometimes force is necessary. But war is a choice. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Return
Reach
Choice
" The conclusion I came to was that even if I couldn't sell books, I still liked the process of writing. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Process
Writing
Conclusion
" Originally, 'The Windup Girl' started as a short story - a very gnarly, complicated short story set in Bangkok that didn't work very well. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Girl
Work
Story
" When I was writing 'The Windup Girl' and 'Ship Breaker,' I was writing those simultaneously, so I was an unpublished writer, not really having that full sense that these books would go out in the world, that they would be successful, that there would be an audience and that there would be fans of those stories. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Ship
World
Writing
" As an author, you're really grateful for the people who are supporting you, but on some other level, that can be a dangerous echo chamber. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
You
Grateful
Level
" A wise human would have an understanding of the supply chain and how the pieces fit together. But it's against our nature to think about it. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Human
Together
Nature
" I know people who have gone into career death spins, and that's something you're always aware of as a writer. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
People
You
Always
" As a writer, you should care about reluctant readers. You want these kids to feel like books are amazing and cool and that they're an escape. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Escape
You
Feel
" The marketplace tells us that good, visceral storytelling has a place. But there are lots of questions about the format that stories take. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Good
Place
Questions
" I focus a little more on pacing when I write books in the young adult category, and of course there's the great American fear of anything sexual, so that's somewhat backed off in YA. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Fear
American
Off
" When we talk about dystopias, especially in young adult fiction, a lot of them are essentially science fictional futures. They aren't necessarily tied to the traditional concept of dystopia. And so in that space, my impression is that kids love reading about weird, wild, adventurous places, and dystopia fits that bill. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Weird
Science
Space
" I'm not proud of it, but I'm a great liar when I travel. I smile and lie, and things are smooth. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Liar
Lie
Proud
" All the definitions people want to put on you in terms of what kind of writer you are come with hidden meanings. If you're writing science fiction, you're writing rocket ships. If you write dystopian fiction, it's inequity where The Man must be fought. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Science
You
Writing
" I think the fact that we, as writers, don't engage with resource-level questions is a symptom of our society where we just don't know where our stuff comes from. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Questions
Fact
Know
" I think inherently, a little bit, I'm a bit of a pleaser, and I want people to like me and be nice, and to not ruffle feathers and just make everybody happy and stuff. It's a personality flaw. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Happy
Think
Personality
" Mostly I sat down and said, 'I'm not going to write a boring story.' And that actually, surprisingly, solves most of your problems. "
Paolo Bacigalupi
Problems
Down
Boring