Science Fiction Quotes

We are the middle children of history. Born too late to explore earth, born too early to explore space.

~ Anonymous

I did not fear that I might tread upon a live rail and be killed. I feared something far more intangible-doing what was not contemplated by the Machine. Then I said to myself, “Man is the measure”, and I went, and after many visits I found an opening.

~ E.m. Forster

Humans were still not only the cheapest robots around, but also, for many tasks, the only robots that could do the job. They were self-reproducing robots too. They showed up and worked generation after generation; give them 3000 calories a day and a few amenities, a little time off, and a strong jolt of fear, and you could work them at almost anything. Give them some ameliorative drugs and you had a working class, reified and coglike.

~ Kim Stanley Robinson

Living with you will be likeaiming for a moving target, you'll always be further along than I expect.

~ Ted Chiang

Music took her somewhere, and I used to wonder where. I thought it was dumb, the way she lived for a collection of sounds, for someone else's words and notes.

~ Megan Lindholm

In a roundabout way, Boba Fett created Pearl Jam.

~ Chuck Klosterman

Books are keys that open many doors.

~ James Rollins

Science fiction deals with improbable possibilities, fantasy with plausible impossibilities.

~ Miriam Allen De Ford

Now I am their sword. And I do not forgive. I do not forget. So let him lead me onto his shuttle. Let him think he owns me. Let him welcome into his house, so I might burn it down. But then his daughter takes my hand, and I feel all the lies fall heavy on my shoulders. They say a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. They made no mention of the heart.

~ Pierce Brown

Reality is shaped by the forces that destroy it.

~ D. Harlan Wilson

And that's what I don't like about magic, Captain. 'cos it's *magic*. You can't ask questions, it's magic. It doesn't explain anything, it's magic. You don't know where it comes from, it's magic! That's what I don't like about magic, it does everything by magic!

~ Terry Pratchett

Write me a creature that thinks as well as a man or better than a man, but not like a man.

~ John W. Campbell Jr.

Once bitten twice shy? Sure, but... why not get a bigger dog and bite them back?

~ A.a. Bell

I had evolved a year too soon, and it nearly broke me

~ Carlyle Labuschagne

Hence the uneasiness which they arouse in those who, for whatever reason, wish to keep us wholly imprisoned in the immediate conflict. That perhaps is why people are so ready with the charge of escape. I never fully understood it till my friend Professor Tolkien asked me the very simple question, What class of men would you expect to be most preoccupied with, and hostile to, the idea of escape? and gave the obvious answer: jailers.

~ C.s. Lewis

Beware of self-indulgence. The romance surrounding the writing profession carries several myths: that one must suffer in order to be creative; that one must be cantankerous and objectionable in order to be bright; that ego is paramount over skill; that one can rise to a level from which one can tell the reader to go to hell. These myths, if believed, can ruin you. If you believe you can make a living as a writer, you already have enough ego.

~ David Brin

This is for everyone who has ever looked at the stars, or gazed from atop a hill, or across the sea and wondered...

~ Tim Perkins

speak hard, steal the air.

~ Anne Mccaffrey

Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible.

~ Rod Serling

Arrogance and Conceit are the mother and father of a closed mind.Charles Jennings, Journey of the Chosen.

~ Richard Nance

I would rather never make a penny on book sales and know that many had derived some fair pleasure from my writing, than to know that very few had ever taken a chance on my work. I certainly won't last forever, but I'd love to think that my imagination will continue to surface in the minds of others.

~ Eric Diehl

RIDE A WHITE SWANRide it on out like a bird in the skyway,Ride it on out like you were a bird,Fly it all out like an eagle in a sunbeam,Ride it all out like you were a bird.Wear a tall hat like the druid in the old daysWear a tall hat and a Tattooed gownRide a white swan like the people of the Beltane,Wear your hair long,babe,you can't go wrong.Catch a bright star and place it on your forehead,Say a few spells and baby,there you go,Take a black cat and sit it on your shoulder,And in the morning you'll know all you know.Wear a tall hat like the druid in the old daysWear a tall hat and a Tattooed gownRide a white swan like the people of the Beltane,Wear your hair long, babe ,you can't go wrong.Da di di da, da di di da

~ Marc Bolan

When I look at my bookcase and see the books upon the shelves, I think to myself, There is a God.

~ Sully Tarnish

We believed we were safe. That was the big fantasy.

~ John Marsden

From the dark forest that bordered the soft ploughed fields, came a low cry that did not belong to any animal. It was accompanied by the sound of branches bending and snapping, and the splintering of wood as trees were crushed or toppled onto their sides.

~ Peter James West

Rachel Henson stood facing him, immaculate in her uniform and ready for duty as always. She looked as though she had spent her whole life preparing for this very moment - she always did.

~ Peter James West

That’s when I notice Cheryl and Mickey cuddled up on the couch. She’s leaning on his shoulder, his arm around her, her leg across his lap. Cheryl throws glances at Kerry that say, “Look at me!” while Kerry shoots a “You go, girl!” smirk right back. I think of CK, how he and I often sat like that. Not because we were seconds from making out or wanted to look like a couple, but just out of a deep, platonic connection. My heart hits a higher notch on the ache-o-meter, my teeth sear into my bottom lip, and then something inside me snaps as cleanly as a crayon.

~ Kea Alwang

So I’m figuring this is death. The little air left in the cockpit is toxic with marthenine, and I can only wonder how much of it I have breathed in. Is my throat becoming raw hamburger? My lungs, oatmeal?

~ Kea Alwang

The rulers were using ancient knowledge to manipulate the amygdaloidal primal fear. They ruled through fear, preternatural fear created through soft, invisible waves designed to alternate the brain’s almond. They kept the people spellbound

~ Amira Aly

First of all, you're dead. Secondly, I cut off your head. Thirdly... yes, I know that rhymed, you really don't have to tell me.

~ Gayle Ramage

I searched my mind for the right visualization. I knew it had to start with what I put in my head. That is where all my accomplishments are formed.

~ Tina M. Randolph

It was all I could do to keep from lunging across the table and pressing my shuttering lips against his burning flesh. My palms were sweating profusely causing me to have to wipe them against my jeans under the table. Those last few seconds had felt like a lifetime in pause.

~ Jennifer L. Brown

Here's a thought. You answer what I ask and I keep not killing you. - Antiope Flint - DREAMNASIUM

~ Geoffrey Thorne

People can always say I don't look impressive enough, but they can't argue over how strong I am once I punch them in the face.

~ F.c. Yee

I define science fiction as the art of the possible. Fantasy is the art of the impossible. Science fiction, again, is the history of ideas, and they're always ideas that work themselves out and become real and happen in the world. And fantasy comes along and says, 'We're going to break all the laws of physics.

~ Ray Bradbury

The Magical Negro rested his red cane on his shoulder and leisurely strolled into the forest to see if he could find him some hobbits, castles, dragons, princesses, and all that other shit.

~ Nnedi Okorafor

I know that I am going to meet a personal variation on reality; a partial view of reality. But I know also that by that partiality, that distancing from the shared experience, it will be new: a revelation. It will be a vision, a more or less powerful or haunting dream. A space-voyage through somebody else's psychic abysses. It will fall short of tragedy, because tragedy is the truth, and truth is what the very great artists, the absolute novelists, tell. It will not be truth; but it will be imagination. Truth is best. For it encompasses tragedy and partakes of the eternal joy. But very few of us know it; the best we can do is recognize it. Imagination - to me - is the next best. For it partakes of Creation, which is one aspect of the eternal joy. All the rest is either Politics or Pedantry, or Mainstream Fiction, may it rest in peace.

~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Watching From Withing protagonist Dr. Jesse Baine says, The only place I can fathom that is truly private is the space between your ears. Think about the sheer number of surveillance systems, automated ID tracking and police brain-print scanners. What is privacy anyhow? And, why would anyone protest the advancement of such tried and true [surveillance] technology? That’s a bit like rising-up against the aspirin!” -Daniel LaMonte

~ Daniel Lamonte

Here the clouds constantly adjusted like obedient phantoms, so that shadows never lengthened or shortened. At any point in space, Limbo never became any darker or lighter than the moment before.

~ L.e. Henderson

Sometimes we need to step away from our current reality in order to truly appreciate it.

~ L.e. Horn