Paolo Bacigalupi Quotes
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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.
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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.
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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.'
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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.
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By nature I'm sort of an introvert.
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I'm not proud of it, but I'm a great liar when I travel. I smile and lie, and things are smooth.
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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.
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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.
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I have friends who are science journalists, and I'm seeing stories of theirs or talking with them about ideas that they're pitching. Certain kinds of science are around me all the time, like climate change and biology.
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I suspect that young adults crave stories of broken futures because they themselves are uneasily aware that their world is falling apart.
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Economies are embedded inside ecosystems. Companies dependent on tourism, for example, are affected by low rainfall - there's less snow for skiers, and forest fires are more intense.
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I'm particularly interested in black swan events: unprecedented surprises that destroy the conventional wisdom about how the world works.
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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.
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Laws are a fine thing on paper, but painful when no bribery can ease their bind.
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Originally, 'The Windup Girl' started as a short story - a very gnarly, complicated short story set in Bangkok that didn't work very well.
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I don't put a very clear label on my work. If anything, I write science fiction - looking at a moment now, in the present, and then extrapolating outward to think about what the future might look like if this particular trend goes on, or if this particular trend is the most dominant. That's a science fictional tool.
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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.'
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I am interested in agricultural corporations and how they function. The idea that they own the genetics of our food supply is a really compelling thing to me.
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The sources and research I use for my inspiration aren't your typical sci-fi subjects, but it's really driven by obsession and personal anxiety more than trying to take up the sword and do what's right.
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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.
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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.
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Laws are confusing documents. They get in the way of justice.
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I say I write extrapolations. I look at data points and ask what the world could look like.
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The conclusion I came to was that even if I couldn't sell books, I still liked the process of writing.