James Doohan, Scotty of the original Star Trek fame, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

I keep wondering -- and dreading -- when I'll see that Dr. Clarke has died.

I know I'm not good enough to take over from these people. I want to be. I want to be as good as Dr. Clarke and Delaney and LeGuin. I want to write real science-fiction, stuff that has real science and important things to say and layer upon layer. I read Babel-17 or The Dispossessed and I can't figure how I can ever be that good. I read Empire Star and it's like this perfect jewel, or the bit in Babel-17 where Rydra and the Butcher are talking in that odd reversed way that's so profound it nearly made my hair stand on end.

I'm so far short of what I want to be. Chasing the tide, never catching the wind. I don't know how to get from here to there.