“The problem
with fictional characters
is they're uncooperative.
You need them to be a certain way
for the sake of the plot
but they won't hear of it.
They have ideas of their own.
Every writer of fiction
knows what I'm talking about.”
– Roy H. Williams

“I never meant this book to go this way. I was supposed to spend a few chapters getting Ender from Eros to Shakespeare and on to Ganges. But I found that all the real story setting up the confrontation on Ganges took place earlier, and to my own consternation, I ended up with a novel which mostly takes place between chapters 14 and 15 of Ender's Game.”
– Orson Scott Card,
the opening lines of the Afterword following
Ender in Exile.