Irv Broughton (IB): "How did we finally come to understand intelligence?"
Isaac Asimov (IA): "I don't know that we--meaning people in general--ever do. Intelligence is an extremely subtle concept. It's a kind of understanding that flourishes if it's combined with a good memory, but exists anyway even in the absence of good memory. It's the ability to draw consequences from causes, to make correct inferences, to foresee what might be the result, to work out logical problems, to be reasonable, rational, to have the ability to understand the solution from perhaps insufficient information. You know when a person is intelligent, but you can be easily fooled if you are not yourself intelligent" (WM2 57).
IB: "How fast do you type?" (WM2 58).
IA: "I type ninety words per minute on the typewriter; I type one-hundred words per minute on the word processor. But, of course, I don't keep that up indefinitely--every once in a while I do have to think a few seconds."
IB: "Ever had bad days where you have to think for quite a few 'few seconds'?"
IA: "I'm pretty consistent. When I sit down at the typewriter, I write. Someone once asked me if I had a fixed routine before I start, like setting up exercises, sharpening pencils, or having a drink of orange juice. I said, 'No, the only thing I do before I start writing is to make sure that I'm close enough to the typewriter to reach the keys" (WM2 59).
From The Writer's Mind: Interviews with American Authors Volume II. Edited by Irv Broughton. Fayetteville: U of Arkansas P, 1990.