quotations about science fiction
One of the purposes of literature is to transport the reader. Science fiction does that. Let more ponderous branches of the art also edify, inform, and elevate. They, too, transport the reader, but rarely as far up as Sirius or as far down as the hydrogen atom.
GROFF CONKLIN
introduction, The Best of Science Fiction
Science fiction rarely is about scientists doing real science, in its slowness, its vagueness, the sort of tedious quality of getting out there and digging amongst rocks and then trying to convince people that what you're seeing justifies the conclusions you're making. The whole process of science is wildly under-represented in science fiction because it's not easy to write about. There are many facets of science that are almost exactly opposite of dramatic narrative. It's slow, tedious, inconclusive, it's hard to tell good guys from bad guys -- it's everything that a normal hour of Star Trek is not.
KIM STANLEY ROBINSON
interview, Locus, September 1997
Joy is the essential and final ingredient of science fiction, the joy of discovery of newness.
PHILIP K. DICK
Paycheck and Other Classic Stories
Science fiction is an argument with the universe.
FARAH MENDLESOHN
editorial, Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction
As a rule, science fiction may be the laziest of all genres, not because the stories themselves are too facile--they can be just as sophisticated and challenging as those of any other genre--but because they often revel in easy solutions: Why walk when you can warp? Why talk when you're a telepath? Technology in such stories typically has more to do with workarounds than it does with work.
JACOB BROGAN
"Science Fiction is for Slackers", Slate, May 26, 2015
Science fiction is at its best when it takes a crazy concept and applies it to real world issues.
GERMAIN LUSSIER
"3FT Ball and Souls Is Groundhog Day With Group Suicide", Gizmodo, September 22, 2017
I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled "Science Fiction" ever since, and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal.
KURT VONNEGUT
The New York Times Book Review, September 5, 1965
The hardest theme in science fiction is that of the alien. The simplest solution of all is in fact quite profound -- that the real difficulty lies not in understanding what is alien, but in understanding what is self. We are all aliens to each other, all different and divided. We are even aliens to ourselves at different stages of our lives. Do any of us remember precisely what it was like to be a baby?
GREG BEAR
introduction, "Plague of Conscience", The Collected Stories of Greg Bear
One of the great advantages of working in science fiction is it does give you an opportunity to talk about interesting and somewhat controversial themes and social issues and in a way that doesn't really threaten the audience, because I'm not challenging their particular points of view.
RONALD D. MOORE
"Ronald D. Moore on writing sci-fi amidst cultural 'turmoil'", Marketplace, September 8, 2017
When I was starting out, science fiction was a little genre over there, which only a few people read. But now -- where are you going to put, for example, Salman Rushdie? Or any of the South American writers? Most people get by calling them magical realists.
DORIS LESSING
interview, The San Francisco Chronicle, January 15, 2006
Science fiction is at its best when it holds a lens up to humanity, or rather when it puts humanity on trial to determine if we can ever truly evolve beyond our baser, savage instincts or if we're doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Underneath all the fantastical, larger-than-life genre components, at its heart, Star Trek was an exploration of what it means to be human. It was an aspirational tale meant to inspire its audience to work towards a better future.
MICHAEL ROSCH
"Star Trek: Discovery -- Finally, a Trek for the Trump demographic!", AiPT! Comics, September 26, 2017
Obviously I'm very much a self-confessed fan of science fiction and genre cinema but part of me looks at society as it is now and just thinks we've been infantilised by our own taste. Now we're essentially all consuming very childish things -- comic books, superheroes. Adults are watching this stuff, and taking it seriously. It is a kind of dumbing down, in a way, because it's taking our focus away from real-world issues. Films used to be about challenging, emotional journeys or moral questions that might make you walk away and re-evaluate how you felt about ... whatever. Now we're walking out of the cinema really not thinking about anything, other than the fact that the Hulk just had a fight with a robot.
SIMON PEGG
Radio Times, May 18, 2015
The wine you drink has never seen a grape
And now your sci-fi suit has lost its shape
But its a dangerous game that comedy plays
Sometimes it tells you the truth, sometimes it delays it
ELVIS COSTELLO
"20% Amnesia"
There is no such thing as science fiction, there is only science eventuality.
STEVEN SPIELBERG
The Making of Jurassic Park
Myths, whether in written or visual form, serve a vital role of asking unanswerable questions and providing unquestionable answers. Most of us, most of the time, have a low tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty. We want to reduce the cognitive dissonance of not knowing by filling the gaps with answers. Traditionally, religious myths have served that role, but today--in the age of science--science fiction is our mythology.
MICHAEL SHERMER
"Reel Life: The Day the Earth Stood Still", Scientific American, December 11, 2008
Historically, I guess that's how science fiction works: you start by using aliens to think the unthinkable -- and then, eventually, another writer, having grown a little more comfortable with the earlier notion, brings it into the human.
SAMUEL R. DELANY
interview, Nerve, June 14, 2001
Many of the early greats of sf -- Hugo Gernsback (publisher of Amazing Stories) in particular -- saw themselves as educators. The didactic thrust of science fiction got the genre initially pegged as children's fare. It was seen, at its best, as an extension of school and, at its worst, as teenage wish fulfillment.
SAMUEL R. DELANY
interview, Nerve, June 14, 2001
As science fiction writers began to get their first glimmerings of the kind of power that computers might someday control, their immediate reaction was one of panic. Even through the 1960s, this view of computers as powerful gods did not change; it only became more sophisticated. For instance, Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short story that began with every telephone on earth ringing at the same time. Over the course of the next few hours, there were an extraordinary number of plane crashes and accidents. The punch line of the story was that the communications network that linked every machine on the planet into one vast consciousness had finally "awakened." The ringing of the phones was the birth cry of the baby and the crash of the planes was its first attempt to play. And so on. The idea was this: When the consciousness wakes up, watch out.
DAVID GERROLD
InfoWorld, July 5, 1982
Imagination and ideas. You cannot find a solution to a problem until you imagine that solution first. If you are incapable of imagining that which is not there or has never been, you are already at a huge disadvantage. Science fiction does all this.
NNEDI OKOROAFOR
"Exclusive Interview with Nigerian Science Fiction Writer, Nnedi Okoroafor", Ventures Africa, September 23, 2015
Science fiction is a way to tell stories that seem too harsh or real if they happen in our own time.
DANA PRICE
"Forbidden Planet visits Corvallis", Corvallis Gazette Times, September 11, 2017