“That’s how [redacted] ended up wrapped around the indestructible Nazi tower.”

“Not everyone knows the Sphinx presented Oedipus with a second riddle. Who speaks Russian in the morning, German in the afternoon, and English at night?”

“I used to be a hobbyist game programmer. The problem was, I started out in the 2000s—which was the worst time in history to do game engine development.”

“Do you know that Gurdjieff believed we live our lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep"? I believe that, too, but rather than seeing it as a disadvantage, I tap into the dream. It’s describing the waking world that causes me problems.”

John Scalzi's Big Idea! “Tower of Mud and Straw isn’t about folks building a tower using devices brought by refugees from another world. It’s about love as a virus. Platonic, sexual, doesn’t matter: love rewires us, changes our tastes, molds us into creatures of anticipation.”

“Some of the imagery comes from places in my memories I can’t trace to any spot I’ve ever visited. Towers, steam locomotives, people against Art Nouveau facades.”

“You simply have to remember Peter Ustinov and, should anyone complain, “But fantasy isn’t like that!”, reply with a resounding “It is now.””

“What is the most frightening thing? Many would say it’s death, the idea that a brain, an infinitely complex tangle of neural pathways, can dissolve into nothing. But I think the potential for horror is much greater if we look at our beginnings.”