John Ernst Steinbeck was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception”.

Isaac Asimov was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the “Big Three” science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke.

Norma Desmond is a character from Sunset Boulevard, and she is a former silent-film star who draws another character Joe Gillis, an aspiring screenwriter, into her deranged fantasy world, where she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen.