Once in a while somebody in the neightborhood who is rich enough to own a hedge, and is always busily clipping it, asks me why I write SF. I never have an answer. There are several other questions that get asked but that obtain no response at all from me. They are:

1. Where do you get your plots?
2. Do you put people you know into your stories?
3. Why aren't you selling to Playboy? Everyone else is. I hear it pays a hell of a lot.
4. Isn't science fiction mainly for kids?

Let me illustrate what I mean when I say I have no answer to these; I will do herein what I generally do.

Answer to 1: Oh, well, plots; well, you can find them almost anywhere. I mean, thereblking to you gives me an idea for a plot. There's this humanoid superior mutant, see, who has to hide himself because the mass man has no understanding of him or his superior, evolved aims - etc.
Answer to 2: No
Answer to 3: I don't know. I guess I am a failure. What other possibility can there be? And it was lousy of you to ask.
Answer to 4: No, SF is not for kids. Or maybe it is; I don't know who reads it. There're roughly 150,000 people who comprise the readership, and that's not a great number. And even if it does appeal to kids - so what?

You can see how weak these answers are. And I've had fifteen years in which to think up better answers. Obviously I never will.