Kaja Foglio

Over the years, I've heard a lot of people who don't feel that they have it in them to do anything creative. They shrug and claim that they 'have no talent.' They say things like, 'Don't quit your day job' or 'Leave it to the professionals.' In the steampunk subculture, I don't hear those things.

I do read a lot, and I think in recent years the ratio between the amount of non-fiction and fiction has tipped quite considerably. I did read fiction as a teenager as well, mostly because I was forced to read fiction, of course, to go through high school.

What I look for when I see a piece of art for the first time is some kind of emotional, intellectual experience, that's a combination of both of those things and is informed by my knowledge and something new that I see the artist doing.