He got it, because he always had a human character base. He wasn’t about these highfalutin ideas about where consciousness, the world or technology was going. He was like, “Yeah, people, what are they going to do next?” He knew that at the core of the future, there is always going to be some schlubby guy struggling, trying to get laid, and being frustrated. [Other science fiction writers] create these fantastic worlds where humans have suddenly lost all humor and they’ve become automatons, but Dick always granted everyone their full humanity, and that’s his enduring appeal. His characters are flawed and oh-so-human. When I read Scanner, I intuitively felt that it was probably his most personal work. It felt like he had lived this world, [the characters] felt like every roommate he had and half the roommates I had at a certain time in my life. It felt very familiar, the way you just sort of “end up” around people. You can see how that house became a kind of crash pad. One group moved out — his family — and another group, these ne’er-do-wells, move in. It’s fun for a while, but then it spins out of control.

Film Maker Magazine: The Schizoid Man

(via Robot Wisdom)