Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
Science fiction seldom attempts to predict the future. More often than not, it tries to prevent the future. — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
But please remember: this is only a work of fiction. The truth, as always, will be far stranger. — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
“Science fiction could now be made far more convincing by science fact.” — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
Isaac Asimov is, in reality, based on something I had invented a few years previously. — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
The success of a science fiction writer is if he can write a good read. — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
“science fiction is something that could happen—but usually you wouldn’t want it to. Fantasy is something that couldn’t happen—though often you only… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
In accordance with the terms of the Clarke-Asimov treaty, the second-best science writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fiction writer. [dedication… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
“Well, I guess [2001: A Space Odyssey] legitimized [science fiction], particularly for people who looked down on science fiction; you know, the… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
Attempting to define science fiction is an undertaking almost as difficult, though not so popular, as trying to define pornography... In both… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
Please help keep the world clean: others may wish to use it. Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
'2001' was written in an age which now lies beyond one of the great divides in human history; we are sundered from… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
'The Devil in the Dark' impressed me because it presented the idea, unusual in science fiction then and now, that something weird,… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
“To be a science fiction writer you must be interested in the future and you must feel that the future will be… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
A precondition for being a science fiction writer other than an interest in the future is that, an interest - at least… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
There's no real objection to escapism, in the right places... We all want to escape occasionally. But science fiction is often very… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
Much blood has also been spilled on the carpet in attempts to distinguish between science fiction and fantasy. I have suggested an… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
Science fiction does not attempt to predict. It extrapolates. It just says, "What if?" not what will be? Because you can never… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware,… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share
We cannot predict the new forces, powers, and discoveries that will be disclosed to us when we reach the other planets and set up… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share
I am unable to distinguish clearly between your religious ceremonies and apparently identical behavior at the sporting and cultural functions you have transmitted to… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share
You can't have it both ways. You can't have both free will and a benevolent higher power who protects you from yourself. — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share
Nowhere in space will we rest our eyes upon the familiar shapes of trees and plants, or any of the animals that share our… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share
“The universe is full of energy, but much of it is at equilibrium. At equilibrium no energy can flow, and therefore it cannot be… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share
“Here the trees surrounded them with an invisible, anechoic blanket, so that every word seemed sucked into silence the moment it was uttered.” — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share
“I’m a scientific expert; that means I know nothing about absolutely everything.” — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share
There were some things that only time could cure. Evil men could be destroyed, but nothing could be done with good men who were… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share
“Pure coincidence, of course, but a sensible man makes coincidences work for him.” — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share
They will have time enough, in those endless aeons, to attempt all things, and to gather all knowledge no Gods imagined by our minds… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share
“One thing seems certain. Our galaxy is now in the brief springtime of its life—a springtime made glorious by such brilliant blue-white stars as… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share