"Thinking is the activity I love best and writing to me is simply thinking through my fingers." ~ Isaac Asimov
Thinking through his fingers, prolific writer Issac Asimov (1920-1992) was born in the Soviet Union and immigrated to New York with his family in 1923. By age five, he taught himself to read with Brooklyn street signs, then also learned Yiddish on his own.
"Difficulties often vanish when faced boldly," said Asimov who at age seven taught his younger sister to read. Little wonder, he skipped several grades and graduated from high school at 15.
Writing was always his true passion.
"I make no effort to write poetically or in a high literary style. I try only to write clearly and I have the very good fortune to think clearly so that the writing comes out as I think, in satisfactory shape," he explained.
Asimov sold his first science fiction story, Marooned Off Vesta when he was 18, launching a remarkable career. His first book, a science-fiction novel, Pebble in the Sky, was published in 1950.
"There isn’t an idea I’ve had that I haven’t put down on paper," said Asimov who wrote 10 or more books a year, about 500 books total, on a wide range of subjects. His celebrated short story, Nightfall (1941) introduced the classic "Three Laws of Robotics," the rules for robots to follow with their human masters.
"I write for the same reason I breathe because if I didn't, I would die," he explained.
Like breathing, Asimov would wake at 6 AM, sit down at the typewriter by 7:30, and work until 10 PM. He worked solo, without a literary agent, doing his own typing, research, and even answering his own mail.
"This way there are no arguments, no instructions, no misunderstandings. I work every day. Sunday is my best day: no mail, no telephones. Writing is my only interest. Even speaking is an interruption," he maintained.
"Writing is more fun than ever," he said. "The longer I write, the easier it gets."
