Eli Wallach

I met my boyfriend, a pro poker player, at a tournament. He tried to dissuade me because it's a seedy gritty world. Listen, I've played till 4 in the morning. I've played with a half million dollars on the table.

The historical novelist has to consider what has actually happened, while the SF writer is dealing in possibilities, but they are both in the business of imagining a world unlike our own and yet connected to it.