You can also make explicit certain social problems which, again, would be prejudged or not encountered at all in real life, because people have set up defenses against it. Fantasy allows you to get past defenses. Elizabeth Moon More Quotes by Elizabeth Moon More Quotes From Elizabeth Moon But in fantasy, you can make a complete break, and you can put people in a situation where they are confronted with things that they would not confront in the real world. Elizabeth Moon real people world I had, of course, no model for that sort of woman being married, but I can make that up as I go along. Elizabeth Moon married models i-can Having a mother who had been an aeronautical engineer convinced me that more things should be open to women. Elizabeth Moon engineers should mother I actually feel that the different kinds of stories come out of different parts of my brain. Elizabeth Moon different stories brain I can become very emotional about math, although I'm not that good at it. Elizabeth Moon emotional i-can math One thing nobody can do better than you is be you. Elizabeth Moon be-you one-thing can-do There are relatively few science fiction or fantasy books with the main character being an old person. Elizabeth Moon character book fiction It may be far in the future, but there's some kind of logical way to get from where we are to where the science fiction is. Elizabeth Moon future may fiction Most eyes have more than one color, but usually they're related. Blue eyes may have two shades of blue, or blue and gray, or blue and green, or even a fleck or two of brown. Most people don't notice that. Elizabeth Moon color eye blue Fantasy allows you to get past defenses. Elizabeth Moon fantasy defense past Motivation is the power behind plot. Elizabeth Moon behinds plot motivation I always thought my questions were wrong questions because no one else asked them. Maybe no one thought of them. Maybe darkness got there first. Maybe I am the first light touching a gulf of ignorance... Maybe my questions matter. Elizabeth Moon touching light ignorance To the gods belong power, and to us the work of our hands. Elizabeth Moon hands When a person responds emotionally to intellectual things, or emotionally only to traditional emotional things - I find that an interesting break between myself and some other writers and fans. Elizabeth Moon emotional intellectual interesting When I was starting out, I did not do short fiction well, because I kept wanting to write books. Elizabeth Moon writing book fiction My first degree came years before my second. I had wanted to be a physicist, but I flunked calculus. Elizabeth Moon degrees years firsts Now my mother, interestingly enough, was not a feminist in her own mind. Elizabeth Moon feminist mother mind No, but a cello is the perfect string bass for an accordion. Works with it beautifully. Elizabeth Moon strings bass perfect In a novel, I could submerge my ego in a characters and let his perceptions take over. Elizabeth Moon ego perception character People are people, messy and mutable, combining differently with one another from day to day - even hour to hour. Elizabeth Moon messy hours people