The surfeit of bad trends pushes me to set my stories in worlds which are often diminished versions of our own present. Paolo Bacigalupi More Quotes by Paolo Bacigalupi More Quotes From Paolo Bacigalupi 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 alone failure together work Science fiction has these obsessions with certain sciences - large scale engineering, neuroscience. Paolo Bacigalupi science-fiction engineering science We're all happier when we know less, because the details are frightening and haven't really improved much. The more you pay attention, the more horrifying the world is. Paolo Bacigalupi know you attention world 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 you man science people I say I write extrapolations. I look at data points and ask what the world could look like. Paolo Bacigalupi say look data world Novelists want to be published and need a publisher to decide to print 20,000 copies. So you need to entertain on some level. I want to reach out and connect. Paolo Bacigalupi reach need you want The young adult category is particularly interesting to me in terms of science fiction and fantasy tropes. Paolo Bacigalupi me fantasy science interesting People don't actually stay still, you know - when their area is a disaster, they go somewhere else, right? And that's just a natural human impulse. Paolo Bacigalupi know you disaster people I think that, when I think about the future that 'The Water Knife' represents, it's one where there's a lack of oversight, planning and organization. Paolo Bacigalupi think future organization water 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 i-am myself future science 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 story boring The things that have really gotten confusing to me is how you balance the desires of your publishers to produce things on a schedule, and people are always sort of giving you ideas on what you should follow up with or how you should proceed next and things like that. Paolo Bacigalupi me you balance people 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 me personality happy people By nature I'm sort of an introvert. Paolo Bacigalupi sort introvert nature 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 american great focus fear Fiction is optimistic or unrealistic enough to demand that there should be a meaningful narrative. Paolo Bacigalupi demand enough should fiction 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 reach choice sometimes war 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 space reading love science 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. Paolo Bacigalupi moment future work science Sometimes when we label something dystopian fiction, I feel like we're trying very hard not to use the words 'science fiction,' because science fiction has those horrible connotations of rocket ships and bodacious babes. Paolo Bacigalupi words feel sometimes science
