The art of fiction has not changed much since prehistoric times. The formula for telling a powerful story has remained the same: create a strong character, a person of great strengths, capable of deep...
The most arduous part of learning is preparing the mind to accept new knowledge.
As long as we're tied to Middle Eastern oil we're tied to Middle Eastern politics. We're hostages to the terrorists and nutcases who want to wipe out Israel and the United States because we support Is...
You can't hate a man you understand.
A fanatic who is willing to die for his cause thinks nothing of killing you for his cause.
Hard SF is the literature of change, the genre that examines the implications—both beneficial and dangerous—of new sciences and technologies.
Krishna: The wise grieve not for those who live; and they grieve not for those who die—for life and death shall pass away.
Science fiction stories are those in which some aspect of future science or high technology is so integral to the story that, if you take away the science or technology, the story collapses.
Every writer must bring three major factors to each story that he writes. They are ideas, artistry and craftsmanship.
And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand.
The term sci-fi, which most science fiction writers loathe, I will reserve for those motion pictures that claim to be science fiction but are actually based on comic strips. Or worse.
If the world should stop revolving, spinning slowly down to dust I’d spend the end with you, And when the world was through Then one by one the stars would all go out, Then you and I would simply fly...
A test. Other races on other worlds have tried it and failed. Wiped themselves out. Overpopulated to the point of total ecological collapse. Destroyed themselves in wars. We’ve got to make sure that t...
In science there is a dictum: don't add an experiment to an experiment. Don't make things unnecessarily complicated. In writing fiction, the more fantastic the tale, the plainer the prose should be. D...
Suffice it to say that after accidently setting the Walden woods ablaze—some estimates hold that more than three hundred acres were consumed—our First Naturalist repaired to the top of Fair Haven Hill...
You must love your neighbor as yourself, and you must love yourself as you love your God. Otherwise you get bureaucrats and swindlers and opinion polls and computer-generated graphs in place of helpin...
The only thing he thinks of is himself, Stoner pointed out. In his deepest heart he does not regard anyone else as truly human; no one except himself. He is the center of his world. Everything and eve...
Fear has two components to it, Kirill. There’s the intellectual awareness of something that might harm you. And there’s the emotional, glandular reaction to that perception. I’m fully aware of the dan...
Do you really think that you’re some sort of superior creature? Do you think that your ability to make money, to steal and lie and murder, places you above normal men?