[The difference between the genres of science fiction and fantasy is that science] fiction is the art of the possible. There's never anything fantastic about science fiction. It's always based on the laws of physics; on those things that can absolutely come to pass. Fantasy, on the other hand, is always the art of the impossible. It goes against all the laws of physics. When you write about invisible men, or walking through walls, or magic carpets, you're dealing with the impossible. (p. 21)

I don't give a damn about the critics. I'm not interested in what they have to say. Really, I don't care about other people's opinions. If I did, I wouldn't have any career at all. I've been warned time and time again not to write science fiction by my friends, my teachers, and all the great intellectuals of our time. That's what's wrong with our culture. Too many people listen to what other people have to say. Who cares? Don't look to others for guidance. Look to yourself! That's what's great about science fiction. Every writer in the science fiction world is a different kind of writer. We all have different views of the world. (p. 23)

I'm an idea writer. Everything of mine is permeated with my love of ideas—both big and small. It doesn't matter what it is as long as it grabs me, and holds me, and fascinates me. And then I'll run out and do something about it. My poetry, all of it, is idea poetry. (p. 26)

[Writing science fiction is] more exciting today. A lot of my poetry is science fiction poetry. My new play, The Martian Chronicles, has been extremely satisfying. I'm older now, my enthusiasm is high, and I'm trying to find new ways of understanding my younger self. And so, my new plays, my science fiction plays, represent a new level of consciousness….

I suspect [science fiction will] move more into philosophy, more into theology, at least I think so. The further we go into space, the more we're going to be awed and terrified by our lonely position in the universe. That means we'll need to do a lot of thinking about the future, which is what I'm trying to do with my poetry. I want to help us to explain ourselves to ourselves. That has always been a constant in science fiction, but I think it will dominate our thinking in the next forty years. (p. 27)

The same attributes that characterize fiction writing in any field are equally true for science fiction—namely, observation and truth…. The Martian Chronicles is a metaphor for a way of viewing the universe, of viewing our planet and the other planets. It works because it rings a bell of truth. It looks like a fantasy, but it isn't. It will only work if you, the reader, feel that the writer has an honest way of looking at the world. (pp. 27-8)