c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Another oral exam, huh?' Peter said.'Shut up, Peter,' said Valentine.'You should relax and enjoy it,' said Peter. 'It could be worse.''I don't know how.''It could be an anal exam.
— Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
Don’t stay with someone who drives you crazy. Find someone who keeps you sane.
— Michael Monroe, Afterlife
Well, for one, you walk around like you’re so much better than everyone else. We’re all a bunch of soulless animals or somethin’ in your eyes, I guess. You’re the high and mighty one and I ain’t fit to drink your piss.
— Michael Monroe, Afterlife
We don’t want our politicians bending to the whims of whichever corporation has the money to pay them off.
— Michael Monroe, Afterlife
People didn’t love all of this when they still had it. If you love something, you do what’s best for it. You don’t destroy it.
— Michael Monroe, Afterlife
Well one tiny poisonous spider can kill a very large man if it bites him in the right place.
— Michael Monroe, Afterlife
The storage capacity of the average human brain is two-hundred and fifty-six exabytes. However, the average adult human only uses approximately one billionth of that storage space effectively. This means my knowledge capacity is approximately three thousand trillion times that of your average human.
— Michael Monroe, Afterlife
A leader’s first duty is to look after his or her people, especially those who are sick, hungry, or thirsty.
— Michael Monroe, Afterlife
Ask very pointed questions. Sharp as sword blades, or laser blasts, if you catch my meaning.
— Michael Monroe, Afterlife
That’s what you people do, isn’t it? Make assumptions and sell them to impressionable idiots.
— Michael Monroe, Afterlife
Money is a tool we use to reach certain ends. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s hard to come by, though, so when opportunities arise, we need to make the most of them.
— Michael Monroe, Afterlife
We need to keep government small, but we also need to keep the influence of big business small, and we need to keep the power in the hands of the people, where it belongs. Big government and big business aren’t the only two alternatives.
— Michael Monroe, Afterlife
For some the label sci-fi is just a shortand for science fiction, an alternative to sf gesturing at ... you know, that stuff we like.
— Hal Duncan, Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions
That was a double negative, Jemail. By saying that you haven’t seen nobody, you’re actually saying that you have seen somebody.
— Michael Monroe, Afterlife
Risk the risks.
— Lauren Lola, A Moment's Worth
We all have our own rhythms to walk to.
— Lauren Lola, A Moment's Worth
Just like the cosmonauts and their pee plants, all we have is each other.
— Arthur C. Clarke, Sunstorm
And she laughed, a full octave, descending from high C like chimes.
— Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow
How cinematic of an entrance that was.
— Lauren Lola, A Moment's Worth
Sometimes, breaking out of a certain mentality is like planning a prison break. You can't just go for it and hope for the best; it requires strategy.
— Lauren Lola, A Moment's Worth
I believe knowledge ought to be gained without a dollar amount added to it.
— Lauren Lola, A Moment's Worth
Genres are what holds each story together and help it along, but in no way should it ever be treated as a boundary, especially for a reader. If I’ve only read science fiction books, I would probably consider myself mad.
— Lauren Lola, A Moment's Worth
If patterns of ones and zeroes were "like" patterns of human lives and deaths, if everything about an individual could be represented in a computer record by a long strings of ones and zeroes, then what kind of creature could be represented by a long string of lives and deaths?
— Thomas Pynchon, Vineland
If you love someone, if someone loved you, if they taught you to write and made it so you could speak, how can you do nothing at all? You might as well take their words out of the dirt and try to snatch them from the wind.Because once you love, it is gone. You love and you cannot call it back.
— Ally Condie, Crossed
Be open to ideas and thoughts you disagree with. It will unleash a debate in your mind and soul.
— James Kirk Bisceglia, Ancient Treasure
He did not have time to wallow, to give a moment’s thought to what may have happened to her or whether she was alive.Turn into the punch, grab hold of the gun, leap into the arena. Attack.He had to move. Now.
— G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo
I’ve come to accept the voices in my head… I just wish they didn’t spit when they talk.
— Gibson Michaels, Storm Clouds Gathering
Speaking of boxes...Do you know that thought experiment with the cat in the box with the poison? Theory requires the cat to be both alive and dead until observed.Well, I actually performed the experiment. Dozens of times. The bad news is reality doesn't exist. The good news is we have a new cat graveyard.
— Ted Kosmatka, Portal 2: Lab Rat
Mutants, super beings, gods, aliens, a guy who sticks to walls at one extreme, a creature who eats planets at the other; Each one that comes into being, they feel, diminishes the rest of humanity, ordinary homo sapiens, that little bit more.
— Jim Lee, X-Men: Mutant Genesis
I'd ask you to think outside the box on this, but it's obvious your box is broken. And has schizophrenia.
— Ted Kosmatka, Portal 2: Lab Rat
By definition, you can’t experience your own death. Death is the end of consciousness. And consciousness persists. In the language of physics, consciousness is conserved.I am the one who wakes up in the morning.Always.Every morning.I don’t die.I just become increasingly unlikely.
— Robert Charles Wilson, Divided by Infinity
Help!" he yelled and he lifted one leg, trying to run. But you can't outrun the membrane — he was soon gone.
— Carol Moreira, Membrane
Read books when you are free, read minds when you are'nt....but do read...
— Rabindranath Tagore
Steampunk is Victorian science fiction
— G.D. Falksen
It's amazing how once the mind is free of emotional pollution, logic and clarity emerge.
— Clyde DeSouza, Memories With Maya
A twisted, pale figure writhing in agony, chest bare and hideous. Tight, rigid cords of sickly green veins webbed across the boy’s body and limbs, like ropes under his skin. Purplish bruises covered the kid, red hives, bloody scratches. His bloodshot eyes bulged, darting back and forth.
— James Dashner, The Maze Runner
Fiction writers, at least in their braver moments, do desire the truth: to know it, speak it, serve it. But they go about it in a peculiar and devious way, which consists in inventing persons, places, and events which never did and never will exist or occur, and telling about these fictions in detail and at length and with a great deal of emotion, and then when they are done writing down this pack of lies, they say,There! That's the truth!
— Urusla K. Le Guin
Matter and energy are equivalent, according to the equation E=mc2, where E stand for energy, m for mass and c for the speed of light,' 'Merapa explained. 'Matter can't be transported at the speed of light but energy can. Therefore, during a time shift transformation, matter is converted to energy then condenses back. In other words all the molecules in your body have been changed from matter to energy then back again.''Wow. It's a wonder it's not fatal,' Dirck said.'Sometimes it is. If any transcription errors occur between the DNA and RNA in your vital organs you're all but dead.
— Marcha A. Fox, Beyond the Hidden Sky
Open up your Mind Rockin' Minds to the Cold Hard Reality that is my Songs & Dreams.
— Gemini Rising Rockin' Machine, The, Purgatory's Full: A Song, a Dream or a Cold Hard Reality in Thirty-Six Parts
The best sci-fi stories use the fantastical to remind us of the reality of who we are today, the hope of who we may become tomorrow, and the shame of who we were yesterday.
— Julio Alexi Genao
I never really had control over my life because no one does. We're all tossed into this loop because there is only 'life.' There is no 'my life this, my life that.' I take part in what life actually is, singular and myriad, warping and stagnant. Life is only itself, and it stretches so much farther beyond who I am that I'm lucky to take part in it for the small amount of time that is given to me. That's all.
— Brandon R. Chinn, Second Stage
This isn't about simple morality. Not anymore. The world is too big, and there are worlds in worlds. They were always there, in everyone's heads, but now we can see them. We're starting to bleed into each other.
— Brandon R. Chinn, Second Stage
Science fiction, as a genre is fundamentally about ideas. It's about asking an impossible question, "What if...?" and building a story out of the answer.Romance on the other hand, is fundamentally about relationships. The hypothetical romance transposed to the past could be rewritten without the futuristic elements and still work as a story, which is something that can't happen with SF. It works in romance, because the story is the relationship and that depends on character, not setting.Lots of books take elements from multiple genres, and there are elements that put them into one genre or another, but setting isn't a key determinant.
— Dave Robinson
Sometimes the most effective idea was just so simple that nobody could slow down their brain enough to think it up.
— R. Curtis Venture, Steal from the Devil
Good science fiction starts with a question "what if...?
— Franklin Clermont
Red, orange and green geometric designs painted its body as well as the flimsy collar around its neck. The creature flicked its tail and blinked its deep-set eyes, apparently oblivious to their presence."That's a yraglian lizards," Deven whispered. "We need to stay back. They smell really bad if you upset them. I mean, really, really bad."Dirck nodded, unsurprised that the first native creature he encountered on Cyraria represented it so well.
— Marcha A. Fox, A Dark of Endless Days
Red, orange and green geometric designs painted its body as well as the flimsy collar around its neck. The creature flicked its tail and blinked its deep-set eyes, apparently oblivious to their presence."That's a yraglian lizard," Deven whispered. "We need to stay back. They smell really bad if you upset them. I mean, really, really bad."Dirck nodded, unsurprised that the first native creature he encountered on Cyraria represented it so well.
— Marcha A. Fox, A Dark of Endless Days
Mortal has not been a habitable place for a long time. We have been trying to survive patching it but one day it will break completely. Twinmortal is the future for all of us. You will achieve that future for us by learning has much as you can.
— Carolina Cody Aldaz, The Guardians of the Earth Type Planets
The Deepest Night*As we layasleep within our suspended animationchambers - living coffinsour thoughts chase each other as theyentwine togetherWith our bodiesseparated by a transparent aluminum partitionour minds connectedtelepathically hug and kiss as we continue tolove each otherAt the endof our thousand lightyear journeywhen our bodiesawake - thaw out - become warm againwithin each others armsWe’ll find ourselvesour passions burning all the hotterforever brighterinto a supernova our love shall blossomwithin the deepest night
No, Sarah. There's more. There's always more. I won't give you up. I won't! It's not just a game. Midgard is real for many people and it's real for what they've experienced. It's real. We don't doubt the way they feel or what they've seen or how they spend their time, so you must be real too! You have to be real, Sarah, because if you aren't, how can I justify any of it? You are a few scraps of code. I'm a few liters of blood and some bones in a bag of skin. If I'm real, you're real too!
— Brandon R. Chinn, First Fragment
I know, i know. You're afraid of making mistakes. Don't be. Mistakes can be profited by. Man, when I was younger I shoved my ignorance in people's faces. They beat me with sticks. By the times I was fort my blunt instrument has been honed to a fine cutting point for me. If you hid your ignorance, no one will hit you and you'll never learn.
— Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
I can understand that people want to feel special and important and so on, but that self-obsession seems a bit pathetic somehow. Not being able to accept that you're just this collection of cells, intelligent to whatever degree, capable of feeling emotion to whatever degree, for a limited amount of time and so on, on this tiny little rock orbiting this not particularly important sun in one of just 400m galaxies, and whatever other levels of reality there might be via something like brane-theory [of multiple dimensions] … really, it's not about you. It's what religion does with this drive for acknowledgement of self-importance that really gets up my nose. 'Yeah, yeah, your individual consciousness is so important to the universe that it must be preserved at all costs' – oh, please. Do try to get a grip of something other than your self-obsession. How Californian. The idea that at all costs, no matter what, it always has to be all about you. Well, I think not.
— Iain M. Banks
She prayed for that all through the night, uncertain to Whom or what, but with a feeling that almost resembled faith.
— Hillary Jordan, When She Woke
To be touched with love was a kind of miracle.
— Hillary Jordan, When She Woke
She'd crossed into a place where truth, even if it was brutal, was all she had to offer.
— Hillary Jordan, When She Woke
That wasn't enough. They weren't enough.Nor, she soon realized, was Will, though by every rational measure he ought to have been. ... He became ardent, spoke of love, hinted at marriage. She stilled his roving hands and deflected his near-proposals. Finally, when his frustration turned to anger, she cut him loose, bleeding and disoriented, her own heart perfectly intact.Aidan wouldn't leave it intact, she'd known that from the first. Long before they became lovers, she could foresee that there would be an after, and that it would lay waste to them both.
— Hillary Jordan, When She Woke
She stood by the bed and stroked her father's hand, knowing how desperately afraid he must feel at this moment. He'd always prided himself on being the kind of man who could be counted on, a man to whom others looked for advice and support. Dependence would wither his spirit, and the thought of that, of her father being diminished or broken, was almost as unbearable as the thought of losing him.
— Hillary Jordan, When She Woke
I,” he said, a faint note of derision in his voice, “am the least favored scion of our ruling house, House Mara Sant.” He was from Brontes, then. Which might explain the eyes…she thought again of certain differences, and suppressed a shudder. “I am a Prince of the Blood,” he continued, sounding both embittered and proud, “third in line for the Dragon Throne, and grand nephew to the Emperor. Owing to a…political dispute, I am now also an exile. Presented with a choice between resigning my commission in the na-vy and leaving to become governor of a mining planet and staying to face my uncle’s as-sassins….” He shrugged slightly, as if the choice were of no consequence.“A…political dispute?”“I gambled,” he said bluntly. “I lost.”“You seem…sanguine,” she remarked, surprise blunting the instinct to guard her tongue.“He shouldn’t have let me live.” That anyone could discuss their own murder with such cold calculation horrified her. He horrified her. She chewed her lip, digesting all that he’d told her: not merely a naval officer, but a prince—and a maverick one at that. She wondered what he could have done.“So you see,” he finished, “I’m no more free than you.” He laughed, then, but without humor. “We can be prisoners together. I am en route to a wretched planet called Tarsonis to assume governorship and as you have no other, more pressing engagement, you are coming with me.
— P.J. Fox, The Price of Desire
My fingers find his. They are warm, pulsing with genetically altered blue blood, powered by mirror matter.
— Georgia Clark, Parched
I focus all my energy into become a faster, stronger, and better version of myself.
— Georgia Clark
I was never sure what possessed Guy and Teo, 2 alien princelings to land in Paris that day.
— Sally Ann Melia, Aliens in Paris
We’re a nonviolent collective working to undermine the Trust and free the Badlands. Once the Trust is exposed as lying and corrupt, we believe Edenites will do the right thing. Open the borders. Save the Badlands.” Ling lowers her voice with deliberate control. “Kudzu is going to destroy something called Aevum.
— Georgia Clark, Parched
I don't like killing, but I'm good at it. Murder isn't so bad from a distance, just shapes popping up in my scope. Close-up work though - a garrotte around a target's neck or a knife in their heart - it's not for me. Too much empathy, that's my problem. Usually. But not today. Today is different . . .
— Graeme Shimmin, A Kill in the Morning
normal is an opinion from a man just like the rest of us, to function just like society is an idea, that to limit and bound reality to make life convenient was fascinating to one soul. then soon to his lot, what is called evil or insane is what people feel is too much or sacrilegious to look for, the unknown. I liked it, I am called a monster, for being what god only knows.― Tashie McKay
— Tashie McKay
Technology won’t protect you from being attacked for fresh water. A badass blade will. Back in Eden where I grew up, the closest thing to knifework I’d experienced was cutting up a loaf of warm bread. Last night, I’d gutted a wild prairie chicken after scaling a rock face to find its nest and slit its throat. What a difference a year makes.
— Georgia Clark, Parched
My relative examined you, observed a few of your normal body cells, compared them with what it had learned from other humans most like you, and said that you had not only a cancer, but a talent for cancer.
— Octavia E. Butler
I catch movement from the corner of my eye. A tell slender boy stands near us, just a few feet away. Adrenaline bangs through my system. I shove Abel behind me and whip my knife from where I’d hidden it in my boot. “Who the hell are you?
— Georgia Clark
A mix of revenge, sadness and anger funnels into a decision that’s so simple and neat, it could fit in my pocket. I will help Kudzu destroy Aevum. Just like Magnus destroyed my mother.
— Georgia Clark, Parched
She felt a soft brush of lips against her forehead, heard the other woman murmur, "Sleep now, chére."Chére, Hannah though. Cherished. It was a good thing to be. She wrapped the word around her and carried it down with her into sleep.
— Hillary Jordan, When She Woke
What?" The dread in her tone told Rob she knew what. "How much longer?""Thirty seconds."She laughed with a panicked urgency. "I just tried to nod. I can't feel my body, but I keep reaching for it, you know?"Rob nodded, feeling guilty he was able to."How about this? I'll just tell you when I'm nodding, or shaking my head, or punching you.""Oh, no," Rob laughed, "are you planning on punching me often?""We'll see."Rob couldn't help glancing at the timer, though he knew it would only make Winter more aware of what was about to happen. Seven seconds."I keep expecting this to get easier, taht it will start to feel as if I'm going to sleep. But it doesn't. Maybe it's not possible to get used to dying."Rob reached out to comfort her, then remembered it was forbidden and drew back. If not for the surveillance, Rob would have reached under the silver cover and taken her hand, cold and stiff as it would have been.
— Will McIntosh, Love Minus Eighty
There are rules to everything, even if nobody made them up, even if nobody calls it a game. And if you want things to work out well, it's best to know the rules and only break them if you're playing a different game and following those rules.
— Orson Scott Card, Ender in Exile
A moment later the scowling face of Admiral Jellico appeared on the screen. He looked as ill-humored as ever. Privately, Calhoun felt that somebody should send an away team into Jellico's ass, to determine just what had crawled up there and died years ago.
— Peter David, Stone and Anvil
Why won’t you look at me?” she murmurs.He doesn’t speak, seemingly at a loss for words.“It’s my scars.” It comes out as barely a whisper.Horror spasms across his face. “What? No,” he says, a bit breathless. “You’re beautiful. All of you.
— Laura Kreitzer, Burning Falls
Not that he wanted to say that. It would make it sound as if he wanted to blame her..Women were very complicated creatures. He suddenly realised he was running through his head a list of everything he considered preferable to women. It was a long and most impressive imaginary document.
— Peter David, Stone and Anvil
Fantastic accomplishments seem like something unattainable and everyone doing the extraordinary seems to be unlike you until YOU do something amazing. Then you realize those talented, heroic leaders are not different from you in any important way." Clara Branon, Ph.D., "This Is/Is Not the Way I Thought Things Would Change," Volume III, "The Spanners Series
— Sally Ember, This Changes Everything
Eternity is a lie and Chiron was the messenger.
— C.J. Anderson, Ruinland
They hate you.""Why?""Cause you're a dick, Mitch.
— Andy Weir, The Martian
I go on writing in both respectable and despised genres because I respect them all, rejoice in their differences, and reject only the prejudice and ignorance that dismisses any book, unread, as not worth reading." -- "On Despising Genres," essay
— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Birthday of the World and Other Stories
When mankind ascended to the stars, he came no closer to God.
— Mitch Michaelson, The Eye of Orion, Book 1: Gearjackers
That's how we should celebrate all birthdays... with an ass-kicking.
— Mord McGhee
Humanity rose to the stars, but never found paradise.
— Mitch Michaelson, The Eye of Orion, Book 1: Gearjackers
It’s a violent galaxy filled with cutthroat pirates, cyber-mercenaries and star messiahs. If peace comes, it will have to steal in like a thief.
— Mitch Michaelson
Howling duststorms of nuclear ashes. Human and animal bone powder. Flakes and fragments of the destroyed world. Filthy tempests of death. I am in Hell, he said.
— C.J. Anderson, Ruinland
There was no sign of any life, just erratic hints of a faded sun peeking down with sorrow on the dead world it once nourished.
— C.J. Anderson, Ruinland
...but there's always he'll want to torture your boss anyway. Just recreationally, I mean.""Wow that would be terrific," I said
— Robert Kroese, Starship Grifters
Complete. What an awful word for an infected people, that final, animal stage that was the future of all of them. Chels swallowed, unsure what to say. “That’s…sad. I didn’t even know he was infected.”Semesz whispered, “He was just infected yesterday. We saw him last night, and he already had mouse whiskers and a tail.
— Daniel Ausema, A New Infection
The folktale world is oriented positively toward its protagonist; a folktale is defined by the hero's triumph: magic weapons and helpers are, with the necessary narrative retardation, at his beck and call.
— Darko Suvin, Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre
Don’t go near that elevator—that’s just what they want us to do…trap us in a steel box and take us down to the basement!” − Raoul Duke, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas“Please, please I don’t want my soul tethered to the Net, my mind impregnated by the Data Stream, or my body enslaved by the Grid. I am a Homo Sapiens, dammit, and I can be a Trog and live in the soup if I want to!” − Pagan Paul
— Austin Dragon, Thy Kingdom Fall
Colonel Graff: We won! That's all that matters.Ender Wiggin: No. The way we win matters.
— Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
'You're like starlight,' Cam whispered, and his teeth scraped up my jaw. I shivered. 'I could lose myself in you.' 
— Lisa Henry, Dark Space
We're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh ?
— The Doctor
It’s a very new, not to mention vulgar, idea that the spectator’s experience should be identical to, or even have anything to do with, the artist’s
— Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren
Cam shook his head. 'Do you ever listen to how much crazy shit comes out of your mouth?' 'Nope.' I hooked my fingers into his waistband and pulled him closer. 'Nobody does. That's why I remain undiagnosed.' 
— Lisa Henry, Dark Space
I was his heartbeat. I was his fucking universe. Now I was, but soon I wouldn't be. I would miss that, miss being important. I would miss having someone.
— Lisa Henry, Dark Space
The most visceral science fiction always takes place in the past and focuses on the humdrum
— Dean Cavanagh
Once it gets off the ground into space, all science fiction is fantasy.
— J.G. Ballard
The castle of Enysfarne was a dark and towering force that hovered over what was left of my innocence. It contained my destiny, of that I had no doubt whatsoever; a fate that threatened to wipe the blush off my face and turn me into the man my father always wanted me to be... Veronica Somerset, Dragonfly.
— Charles A. Cornell, DragonFly
It's the superhero problem . . . .Superpowers make everything personal. Batman versus Joker. Fantastic Four versus Galactus. The Big G might be the Devourer of Worlds, but in the end he's just a dude. Beat him and the problem goes away. But the real problems aren't like that. You can't solve them by hitting them. The real supervillains. . . . were people in suits who met in rooms and decided things. Destroy one and another would take her place
— Ian McDonald, Empress of the Sun
The main reception foyer was almost empty but Ford nevertheless weaved his way through it.
— Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Science fiction is the one literature that deals with today's reality - that provides a basis for discussion and understanding of the complex events of our time. It opens the doors for students - doors into all branches of knowledge.
— Biggle
All brightness was gone, leaving nothing. We stepped out of the tent onto nothing. Sledge and tent were there, Estraven stood beside me, but neither he nor I cast any shadow. There was dull light all around, everywhere. When we walked on the crisp snow no shadow showed the footprint. We left no track. Sledge, tent, himself, myself: nothing else at all. No sun, no sky, no horizon, no world.
— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
One day I found him amid large packages from which spilled attractive, glossy paperbacks with mythical covers. He had tried to use, as a "generator of ideas" — for we were running out of them — those works of fantastic literature, that popular genre (especially in the States), called, by a persistent misconception, "science fiction." He had not read such books before; he was annoyed — indignant, even — expecting variety, finding monotony. "They have everything except fantasy," he said. Indeed, a mistake. The authors of these pseudo-scientific fairy tales supply the public with what it wants: truisms, clichés, stereotypes, all sufficiently costumed and made "wonderful" so that the reader may sink into a safe state of surprise and at the same time not be jostled out of his philosophy of life. If there is progress in a culture, the progress is above all conceptual, but literature, the science-fiction variety in particular, has nothing to do with that.
— Stanisław Lem, His Master's Voice
Normally, I don't take to drinking so early in the morning, but I bend the rules when I get my ass kicked before sunrise."--Thomas Morelli
— C.J. Fella, Rise of the Black Hand: The Case Files of Thomas Morelli
Take a scientific fact or theory, add a futuristic or other-worldly setting, stir in an imaginative plot and fascinating characters, and a science fiction novel emerges from the cosmic mix.
— Yvonne Coleman
What we've done is make the categories of science fiction and fantasy larger, freer, and more inclusive than any other genre of contemporary literature. We have room for everybody, and we are extraordinarily open to genuine experimentation.
— Orson Scott Card, How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy
It was the dog Abel, who - as animals have been reported to do - had made his way over all England's hills and rivers, to return to that home where he was first kindly treated. The warm fire, by which he sleeps even now, and the fattening dish will be his rewards to the end of his days.
— K.W. Jeter, Infernal Devices
I’ve never liked urban myths. I’ve never liked pretending to believe in them; never understood why everyone else doesn’t see straight through them. Why is it they’ve always happened to a friend of a friend - someone you’ve never met? Why does everyone smile and nod and pull the right faces, when they must know they’re not true? Pointless. A waste of breath. So I sneered at the myths about Scaderstone Pit. It was just an old quarry – nothing more. I never believed in the rumours of discarded dynamite. It had decayed, they said. It exploded at the slightest touch, had even blown someone’s hand off. I shrugged off the talk of the toxic waste. It was dumped in the dead of night, they said. The canisters rusting away, leaking deadly poisons that could blind you, burn your lungs. I laughed at the ghost stories. You could hear the moans, they said, of quarrymen buried alive and never found. You could see their nightwalking souls, searching for their poor crushed bodies.I didn’t believe any of it – not one word. Now, after everything that’s happened, I wonder whether I should’ve listened to those stories. Maybe then, these things would’ve happened to someone else, and I could’ve smiled and said they were impossible.But this is not an urban myth. And it did not happen to someone else, but to me. I’ve set it down as best I can remember. Whether you believe it or not, is up to you.
— Mikey Campling, Trespass
...You believe that the kind of story you want to tell might be best received by the science fiction and fantasy audience. I hope you're right, because in many ways this is the best audience in the world to write for. They're open-minded and intelligent. They want to think as well as feel, understand as well as dream. Above all, they want to be led into places that no one has ever visited before. It's a privilege to tell stories to these readers, and an honour when they applaud the tale you tell.
— Orson Scott Card, How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy
Despite centuries of English literature, the most famous split infinitive in all of history comes from Star Trek.
— R. Curtis Venture
An infinitely unpleasant fraction of a second is a small price to pay for the opportunity to stride across eternity.
— R. Curtis Venture, Steal from the Devil
Social dynamic theory is philosophy, not politics. There can't be only one correct answer, or there would only be one book." Sharon L Reddy, Worldcon, 1995.
— Sharon L. Reddy
On January 24th, Apple computers will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.” – Old Hollywood film director Sir Ridley Scott’s classic “1984” Apple Macintosh commercial, first aired 15 Dec. 1983, Top Ten Commercials of All Time, 2050 edition“Well, it all did lead to 1984.” – Goli, the tek-lord, 2089
— Austin Dragon, Thy Kingdom Fall
US Constitution is unconstitutional.” – Circuit Judges Alfred T. Goodwin and Stephen Reinhardt, Federal Appeals Court, San Francisco, 2002 (overturned)“US Constitution is unconstitutional.” – The United States Supreme Court, 2079
— Austin Dragon, Thy Kingdom Fall
Masochism is more widespread than we realize because it takes an attenuated form. The basic dynamism is as follows: a human being sees something bad which is coming as inevitable. There is no way he can halt the process; he is helpess. This sense of helplessness generates a need to gain some control over the impending pain -- any kind of control will do. This makes sense; the subjective feeling of helplessness is more painful than the impending misery. So the person seizes control over the situation in the only way open to him: he connives to bring on the impending misery; he hastens it. This activity on his part promotes the false impression that he enjoys pain. Not so. It is simply that he cannot any longer endure the helplessness or the supposed helplessness. But in the process of gaining control over the inevitable misery he becomes, automatically, anhedonic. Anhedonia sets in stealthily. Over the years it takes control of him. For example, he learns to defer gratification; this is a step in the dismal process of anhedonia. In learning to defer he gratification he experiences a sense of self-mastery; he has become stoic, disciplined; he does not give way to impulse. He has "control". Control over himself in terms of his impulses and control over the external situation. He is a controlled and controlling person. Pretty soon he has branched out and is controlling other people, as part of the situation. He becomes a manipulator. Of course, he is not conciousily aware of this; all he intends to do is lessen his own sense of impotence. But in his task of lessening this sense, he insidiously overpowers the freedom of others. Yet, he dervies no pleasure from this, no positive psychological gain; all his gains are essential negative.
— Philip K. Dick, VALIS
The better you tell an old story, the more you are talking about right now.
— John Crowley, Engine Summer
Perhaps it's the alien equivalent of a discarded tomato can. Does a beetle know why it can enter the can only from one end as it lies across the trail to the beetle's burrow? Does the beetle understand why it is harder to climb to the left or right, inside the can, than it is to follow a straight line? Would the beetle be a fool to assume the human race put the can there to torment it — or an egomaniac to believe the can was manufactured only to mystify it? It would be best for the beetle to study the can in terms of the can's logic, to the limit of the beetle's ability. In that way, at least, the beetle can proceed intelligently. It may even grasp some hint of the can's maker. Any other approach is either folly or madness.
— Algis Budrys, Rogue Moon
I could be listening to Painted Red weave the stories of the saints in her rich roomy voice, and beginning to see how all those stories were in some way one story: a simple story about being alive, and being a man; a story that, simple as it was, couldn't itself be told.
— John Crowley, Engine Summer
You brothers-such a nest of rivalries. I warned him to make you sisters, that it would make things more civilized. He thought I was joking, I wasn't." - Malcador
— Chris Wraight, Scars: Episode II
Humans had spent thousands of years climbing out of caves and building technology so they could reach the moon and live in caves again.
— John G. Hemry, Stark's War
You hunt and catch your own food. Am I correct?""We are fierce predators of the night," DeChevue said proudly.Edwin tried again, "You hunt and gather your own food?"DeChevue still didn't get it. "Yes, M'sieur. We hunt, proudly.""You know, there is a special name for people who have to catch and kill everything they eat.""And that name has been the terror of the night from the dawn of man. Which name would you like? I can supply many. Nosferatu? Das Vampire?""Peasant," Edwin said. "A person who has to provide all his own food is a peasant. How is it that you have lived all this time and are still ignorant of the division of labor?"DeChevue's mouth opened and closed several times. Each time he seemed on the verge of saying something, yet each time words failed him.
— Patrick E. McLean, Consultation With a Vampire
path is only a name for a place where you find yourself. Where you're going on it is only a story. Where you've been on it is only another. Some of the stories are pleasant ones
—  some are not. That's dark and light.
Let's say that the God the Christians pray to is real. He actually exists. But this God is the same as the one that the Jews pray to and the same as the one that the Muslims pray to and whatever other religions are praying to a God, He is the one. One God with many faces. Most of these religions contain the myth of the Anti-Christ, a being who will come one day and lead the world astray, lead the world to a place of sin and evil. Who could this Anti-Christ be...Consider the God with many faces. How many wars have been fought in His Name? How many people have been beaten, jailed, and maimed to prove His points. Think of the Inquisition, the Holocaust, Salem, and the Sudan. All of these tragedies carried out in His name. Why is it accepted that He is a force for good? If we were to look for the Anti-Christ just by his accomplishments, wouldn't we clearly suspect the being who is the cause of so much woe?
— S.T. Rogers, A Wonderful World: The End of Times
In any case, this was a deep human prejudice. Human beings to find a central command in any organization. States had governments. Corporations had CEOs. Schools had principals. Armies had generals. Human beings tended to believe that without central command, chaos would overwhelm the organization and nothing significant could be accomplished.
— Michael Crichton, Prey
The chances of anything man-like on Mars are a million to one
— H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds
The death takes a moment and life lasts forever. Why spend eternity worried about a singularity?
— Abram Gitspof, The Book of Aftermath
Subconsciously, we all want to be nebula... In the end, we’re all connected. We’re all going to become one cloud of light whether you like it or not. We’re all made of the same star dust.
— Jason Daniel Chaplin
Good science fiction has its roots in good science.
— Dan Brown, Angels & Demons
Brother, when you've been here as long as I have, you'll come to discover there are only one or two essential things worth living for. Unique to you and you alone. My honor is one of them for me. I keep my honor by keeping the relic out of their hands.
— Brodi Ashton, Neverfall
The mistakes we make when we are young are just as important to us as food or air. Without learning how to do things the wrong way, we can never learn how to do them the right way.
— J.A. Brimingham, Dylan's Prize
I'll show you my theory, if you show me yours.
— Fox Mulder
We're in America; why do I have to "Press 1" for English?
— Allan Hall
Kate opens a jar of honey and pours a thick line of the sticky stuff over the top edge of the wound. Setting the jar back on the counter, she picks up the first strip of cloth and gently wraps it around his arm. As she works, she can feel his eyes on her, watching her silently. She stands close, and his injured arm is outstretched just enough for his hand to be hanging in the air beside her waist. When she tugs on the bandage to make the first knot, his hand is pulled to her, lightly brushing the side of her body with the tips of his fingers. When she tugs again, he presses his hand to her waist, and she feels the subtle constriction of his fingertips.
— Kari Aguila, Women's Work
The moment stretches out to an eternity in her green eyes, and I can picture being together with this girl until the end of time; our hands entwined as we pass across the veil of the universe, forever hurtling into a vast expanse of nothing.
— Ken Alexopoulos, Sanctified - ACT 1: Born of Man: ACT 1: Born of Man
Your demons are always with you," Skale answered. His voice seemed even raspier than the day before. "Don't you understand that by now? Always with you, impossible to escape. But you never can guess how they might manifest themselves.
— James Dashner, The Eye of Minds
For the first time in his life, Michael understood why real soldiers coming back from real wars often had a hard time getting over the things they'd seen and done. And had done to them. If Michael had a soul, it was starting to leak out of his hopes.
— James Dashner, The Eye of Minds
If the lies don't kill you, the truth will.
— Hugh Howey, Wool Omnibus
He let out a short laugh. "You sound like Sherlock Holmes. You gonna pull out a magnifying glass? A pipe, maybe?
— James Dashner, The Eye of Minds
People say, 'Time heals all wounds.' That may be true, but relocating to an alternate reality can sure help too." -Excerpt from the journal of Dr. Harold Quickly, 1941
— Nathan Van Coops, In Times Like These
Archie wasn't waiting for her at the attic. She didn't consider that. He wasprobably giving her time to set and collect a trap, about a week or so as she guessed, a testing period. He couldn't trust her just yet, but she could tell that there was also more to it. He needed to distance himself, from her, because he was afraid to love her. That was it. Loving her was his flaw, weakness, and he could not have a weakness, not while at war. He wouldn't show up, not for some time. She knew that. The longer it would take for him to come back, the more he loved her.
— Perie Wolford, Presence
Tom is a filthy little pustule. If you quote me, I'll deny it!
— Nancy Farmer, The House of the Scorpion
Science fiction is a field of writing where, month after month, every printed word implies to hundreds of thousands of people: 'There is change. Look, today's fantastic story is tomorrow's fact.
— A.E. van Vogt
Humans would never tell the simple truth when a lie was available....
— Karen Traviss, Halo: Glasslands
Should the research worker of the future discover some means of releasing this [atomic] energy in a form which could be employed, the human race will have at its command powers beyond the dream of scientific fiction, but the remotest possibility must always be considered that the energy once liberated will be completely uncontrollable and by its intense violence detonate all neighbouring substances. In this event, the whole of the hydrogen on earth might be transformed at once and the success of the experiment published at large to the universe as a new star.
— Francis William Aston
To use the enemy's weapon is to play the enemy's game...speak the truth and hear the truth.
— Ursula K. Le Guin, City of Illusions
The state exists for man,not man for the state.The same may be said ofscience. These are old phrases,coined by people who saw in human individuality the highest human value .I would hesitate to repeat them,were it not for the ever recurring danger that they may be forgotten,especially in these days of organization and stereotypes.
— Albert Einstein
She's qualified all right. She understands robots like a sister—comes from hating human beings so much, I think.
— Isaac Asimov, Robot Visions
There is no such thing as magic. Just that which you do not understand.
— Ron Alias, AOA
Was he leaving home, or going home?
— Ursula K. Le Guin, City of Illusions
If we accept the premise that we’re always wrong, it really removes the incentive to spend a lot of time trying to make good guesses because even the good guesses turn out to be wrong. So, make plausible guesses… and tell a good story.
— James S.A. Corey
In the empty expanses of space, the wandering traders need men like myself to care for the spiritual side of a life so given over to commerce, and worldly pursuits.
— Isaac Asimov, Foundation
Unfettered is an anthology filled with magic, wonderment, and hope. It is more than it's combined stories, though. It is the power of friendship. Of giving. Of a science-fiction and fantasy community that protects its own. Of humanity escaping the ugliness that often plagues it to instead create a testament to the goodness found in every heart.
— Shawn Speakman, Unfettered
A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices.
— Dave Donovan, The Gift
We break our huddle and Eight immediately transforms into one of his massive avatars. His handsome features melt away, replaced by the snarling face and golden mane of a lion. He grows to about twelve feet, ten arms sprouting out of his sides, each of them tipped with razor-sharp claws. Nine whistles through his teeth.'Now we're talking,' Nine says. 'One of your parents must've been a chimæra. Probably your mom.
— Pittacus Lore, The Fall of Five
Science fiction makes the implausible possible, while science fantasy makes the impossible plausible.
— Rod Serling
The authentic human being is one of us who instinctively knows what he should not do, and, in addition, he will balk at doing it. He will refuse to do it, even if this brings down dread consequences to him and to those whom he loves. This, to me, is the ultimately heroic trait of ordinary people; they say no to the tyrant and they calmly take the consequences of this resistance. Their deeds may be small, and almost always unnoticed, unmarked by history. Their names are not remembered, nor did these authentic humans expect their names to be remembered. I see their authenticity in an odd way: not in their willingness to perform great heroic deeds but in their quiet refusals. In essence, they cannot be compelled to be what they are not.
— Philip K. Dick
The mind is the reality. You are what you think.
— Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man
Zombies are not just fictional creatures that devour the flesh of the living. They also include those who follow the words of others without thinking for themselves. This world is falling apart. I don’t think anyone can disagree with that. People live in their twenty-mile-radius realities and don’t notice the world happening around them, until it finally breaks down their front door.
— Joseph McGinnis, The Weathering, Dawn of the Apocalypse
If there’s a zeppelin, it’s alternate history. If there’s a rocketship, it’s science fiction. If there are swords and/or horses, it’s fantasy. A book with swords and horses in it can be turned into science fiction by adding a rocketship to the mix. If a book has a rocketship in it, the only thing that can turn it back into fantasy is the Holy Grail.
— Debra Doyle
There’s still much to do
—  still so much to learn. Mr. La Forge – engage!
And so it goes. And so it goes. And so it goes. And so it goes goes goes goes goes tick tock tick tock tick tock and one day we no longer let time serve us, we serve time and we are slaves of the schedule, worshipers of the sun's passing, bound into a life predicated on restrictions because the system will not function if we don't keep the schedule tight.
— Harlan Ellison, "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman
... But my voice is too soft. The wind picks up my words and swallows them whole.
— Hafsah Laziaf, Unbreathable
As the night air started to creep in, he lifted her in his arms and walked the back way to their home on campus. He spent the evening digging her grave, not even caring who came his way. He didn’t care whether he lived or died, now that he had lost his only love. Mike glanced into her face one more time, and then covered her with dirt. “We bury our own. We take care of the ones we love.” He spoke softly, then placed a flower on her grave and made his way back to their dorm room.
— Joseph McGinnis, The Weathering, Dawn of the Apocalypse
Science Fiction properly conceived, like all serious fiction, however funny, is a way of trying to describe what is going on, what people actually do and feel, how people relate to everything else in this vast sack, this belly of the universe, this womb of things to be and tomb of things that were, this unending story. In it, as in all fiction, there is room enough to keep even Man where he belongs, in his place in the scheme of things, there is time enough to gather plenty of wild oats and sow them, too, and sing to little Oom, and listen to Ool's joke, and watch newts, and still the story isn't over. Still there are seeds to be gathered and room in the bag of stars.
— Ursula K. Le Guin
I felt sure that [Oyarsa] was what we call "good," but I wasn't sure whether I liked "goodness" so much as I had supposed.
— C.S. Lewis
What sort of an imaginary voice is that? I asked myself, suppose Columbus had heard an imaginary voice telling him to sail west. And because of it he had discovered the New World and changed human history... We would be hard put to defend the use of the term 'imaginary' then, for that voice, since the consequences of its speaking came to affect us all. Which would have constituted greater reality, an 'imaginary' voice telling him to sail west, or a 'real' voice telling him the idea was hopeless?
— Philip K. Dick, Radio Free Albemuth