Somehow, for all my outward pretence of cold-eyed professionalism, all my insistence that writing is simply a job like any other, Ive discovered to my surprise and chagrin that theres more than that going on around here, that I write as much out of karmic necessity and some inescapable inner need to rededicate my own skills constantly to my-what? My craft? My art? My profession? I wrote these stories because the only way of earning a living I have ever had has been by writing, but mainly, I have to admit, I wrote these stories because I couldnt not write them. Well, so be it. They involved me in a lot of hard work, but for me, at least, the results justify the toil. Im glad I wrote them. Writing them, it turns out, was important for me, and even pleasurable, in a curiously complex after-the-fact kind of way. May they give you pleasure now too. -Robert Silverberg, from his Introduction