It felt to me that [science fiction] was how to best express what
Southern California was about. Even though it was in symbolic terms,
this sense of rapid change and history spinning out of control. ... It
was the way Southern California felt. When I was a kid, Orange County
was orange trees, and I was reading Huckleberry Finn and thinking I was
in Hannibal, Missouri. As a kid, I was pretty wrong about where I was
in time and space. Science fiction was a correction. I saw trees get
ripped out and replaced by freeways and condominium culture. Science
fiction helped me understand it. (2004)
