The following is from Virginia Edition Volume 26 - Job: A comedy of Justice
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“The Authority — his name was Cheevers — had been annoying me ever since I had joined the ship. I leaned forward and said quietly into his ear, "If those children walk through the fire, do you have the guts to do likewise?"
Let this be a lesson to you. Learn by my bad example. Never let an oaf cause you to lose your judgement. “
From the VE Vol. 26 Introduction by Robert James, Ph.D. and William H. Patterson, Jr.
In the early eighties, Robert Heinlein was in his fifth decade of productivity as a writer. 1984 was coming up, and he wanted to do something special for that iconic year. But he was diagnosed with emphysema in 1983, and it was a struggle to get every breath. Arthritis in both hands made typing nearly impossible. “The last time I wrote a full novel on a typewriter,” he told colleague Clifford D. Simak, “I told Ginny afterwards that I probably would never again write a book-length story—too exhausting.” Ginny found a solution for that, getting them his-and-her matching computers (and learning to repair them—and to write her own programs). Robert Heinlein was back in business. “The real bonus,” he told Simak:
“. . . is the reduction in wear and tear on me. I figure that it has extended my professional life practically up to the day I take to my bed for the last time—and that’s the way I want it to be.”