ANDY WEIR

A story in your head isn't a story. It's just a daydream until you actually write it down. So write it down.

If you look up every last detail on your subject, you'll never finish.

There's nothing I would like more than to watch a manned Mars landing.

Don't tell your stories to anyone. You'll be more motivated knowing it's a prerequisite to having an audience.

Back in the days of Apollo, sending humans to the moon was the only viable way to get the scientific data we wanted. But now, with our computer and robotics technology, there's very little an astronaut can do on Mars that a well-designed rover can't.

A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Don't wait for an inspired ending to come to mind. Work your way to the ending and see what comes up.

I don't even date; I'm terrible with women.

There's more to research than just looking up facts. Eventually, you have to make subjective calls. If you're writing a science fiction novel, there's probably some speculative technology in it. You'll have to decide how to project existing technology forward in a plausible way.

Computer programming is pretty much guaranteed income. I'm good at it, and I like it.

I was hired as a computer programmer for a national laboratory at age 15.

My father has a great love of science, and he indoctrinated me into it early. I think I was 12 or so when we designed a moon base.

Research into manned spaceflight is shifting from low-Earth orbit to destinations much further away, like Mars and the asteroid belt. But society will have to invent many new technologies before it can plausibly send people to those distances.

I am not a brave man... I do not have the right stuff. Astronauts are really a cut above.

I don't take Mars One seriously at all.

I originally wrote 'The Martian' as a free serial novel, posting one chapter at a time to my website.

If the reader is rooting for the protagonist, they'll forgive you just about everything else.

My first book was so horrible I have deleted all copies of it. Thankfully, it was before the Internet, so there are no lurking caches of it anywhere.

The reason space missions need artificial gravity is clear: humans simply did not evolve to live in zero gravity.

You want an audience. If you didn't, you wouldn't be a writer. The biggest motivation to write is the knowledge that someone will read it.

Designing a station with artificial gravity would undoubtedly be a daunting task. Space agencies would have to re-examine many reliable technologies under the light of the new forces these tools would have to endure. Space flight would have to take several steps back before moving forward again.

Eventually, while researching, you'll learn something you didn't want to know. Some fact that ruins a plotline you had in mind. The good news is that sometimes, learning all the facts can make for a much more interesting story than you originally had in mind.

I study orbital dynamics as a hobby. My idea of a good time is sitting down and drawing on that knowledge to imagine a space mission from beginning to end, getting as many details right as I can.

I was born too late to experience Apollo 11, though I do trek to Dad's house every time there's some space event. There's something awesome about crossing your fingers and watching a tense Mission Control room do their thing.

Just so we're clear, Mark Watney is who I want to be. He has all the qualities I like about myself magnified without any of the qualities I dislike. Mark Watney isn't afraid to fly.

Thanks to our modern era, facts are incredibly easy to come by. A few web searches for your subject matter, and you have all the information you could dream of.