Because my post Isaac Asimov and the Joys of Autism continues to get more visits than anything else on this site (in fact, the frequency of the visits is increasing, remarkably so this week), I’m going to repeat a delightful anecdote of his, which is in the autobiography published by his wife after his death, Isaac Asimov – It’s Been a Good Life.
Asimov was not only fascinated by science, literature and history. He had a keen appreciation of humor. So here is the quote from It’s Been a Good Life. Asimov had just come out from a TV station in New York where he’d been interviewed, and hailed a taxi:
The driver had seen me come tearing out of the Channel 13 building and asked me what I was doing there.
“Being interviewed,” I said, with business like conciseness.
“You an actor?”
“No, I’m a writer.”
“I once wanted to be a writer,” said the cabbie, “but I never got around to it.”
“Just as well,” I said consolingly. “You can’t make a living as a writer.”
The taxi driver said argumentatively, “Isaac Asimov does.”
I had no answer.
Alan Conrad 