Zombie vs. Shark vs. Anthony Ha

GIBSON: Today I could write a version of Neuromancer where you'd see the quotidian naturalistic side, but it wouldn't be science fiction. With the fairly limited tool kit I had in 1981, I wouldn't have been able to do that, and, of course, I didn't know what it would be like.

INTERVIEWER: What was needed that you were missing?

GIBSON: I didn't have the emotional range. i could only create characters who have really, really super highs and super lows -- no middle. It's taken me eight books to get to a point where the characters can have recognizably complex or ambiguous relationships with other characters. In Neuromancer, the whole range of social possibility when they meet is, Shall we have sex, or shall I kill you? Or you know, Let's go rob a Chinese corporation -- cool!

- from the interview with William Gibson in the latest issue of the Paris Review. The magazine includes an interview with Samuel Delany that's quite good too.