Give him enough rope and he will hang himself.

You can never take those you love for granted, and you have to be willing to be open and really communicate with one another to make any relationship work. And that's just it: relationships take work, and they take compromise and compassion and understanding.

I don't call you handsome, sir, though I love you most dearly: far too dearly to flatter you. Don't flatter me.

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.