Genre labels are useful only insofar as they help you find an audience.

If you can find collaborators whose strengths compliment your own, the result can be more than the sum of its authors.

It's a tough job to tell a story when the audience already knows the ending, and the ending is bleak.

Even if you only want to write science fiction, you should also read mysteries, poetry, mainstream literature, history, biography, philosophy, and science.

I now have to find a reason to write, every single day.

I found college useful for a lot of other reasons. It exposed me to a great many influences I wouldn't otherwise have encountered, and gave me a lot of time with some very intelligent people whose thoughts are still with me.