David S. Goyer Quotes

I have 20 or 30 books completely plotted out in my mind - mysteries, thrillers, horror, romance, science fiction. You name it.

I have to do more close research and fact checking for the science fiction. This is not however to say that writing good fantasy does not involve doing good research.

When I was in my late twenties, a friend suggested that, since I was an avid SF reader and had been since I was barely a teenager, that since it didn't look like the poetry was going where I wanted, I might try writing a science fiction story. I did, and the first story I ever wrote was 'The Great American Economy.'

I find fantasy easier to write. If I'm going to write science fiction, I spend a lot more time thinking up justifications. I can write fantasy without thinking as much. I like to balance things out: a certain amount of fantasy and a certain amount of science fiction.

I love working with genre. And to me, the Victorian novel is the flourishing ancestor I'm always trying to access when I write.

After writing several chapter books, I found my true passion: historical fiction.

People ask me how I do research for my science fiction. The answer is, I never do any research.

I'm mostly a novelist these days, but I have written short stories in Fantasy, Science Fiction and horror.

When I wrote my first book, 'The Tennis Party', my overriding concern was that I didn't write the autobiographical first novel. I was so, so determined not to write about a 24-year-old journalist. It was going to have male characters, and middle-aged people, so I could say, 'Look, I'm not just writing about my life, I'm a real author.'

I would like to write a book that wasn't so violent and weird, but I just don't think I can do that with my talent. I don't think it would come off.

My first novel, 'Sacrifice,' was set on the Shetland Islands.

From my years of teaching creative writing, I know that new writers take the setting for granted, as simply a place to set the action, but setting is a vital element in fiction writing and deserves serious treatment.

I've loved sci-fi and speculative fiction since I was a kid. It was inevitable I'd try my hand at it at some point.

Yes - 90% of fantasy is crap. And so is 90% of science fiction and 90% of mystery fiction and 90% of literary fiction.

I see every book as a problem that you have to solve. That is what dictates the form you use. It's not that you say, 'I want to write a science fiction book.' You start from the other end, and what you have to say dictates the form of it.

When I write my books, actually, I'm known for very logical rule-based magic systems. I write with one foot in fantasy and one foot in science fiction.

While I was in high school, I discovered and began writing science fiction.

Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything.

Every moment of a science fiction story must represent the triumph of writing over world-building.

I was inspired to become a writer by horror movies and science fiction.

I find that nonfiction writers are the likeliest to turn out interesting novels.

If you're writing a detective novel or horror or sci-fi, you want to expand or reinvigorate the genre in your own little way.

Short fiction encourages experimentation, and it's fun to play with form and try experiments that may or may not work out.

I write speculative fiction, and in my view, speculative fiction is really just a very intense version of the work of literature in general.

I tend to be more of a novel writer. In fact, some of my novels started out as short stories, and I just got carried away! I think some of my best writing is in the short story form, but novels come more naturally to me.