It's clear that science and science fiction have overlapping populations.

The science fiction method is dissection and reconstruction.

A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.

You can't really predict the future. All you can do is invent it.

My old English buddy, John Rackham, wrote and told me what made science fiction different from all other kinds of literature - science fiction is written according to the science fiction method.

My first thought was always a cigarette. It still is, but I haven't cheated.

What were we doing here? Traveling hundreds or thousands of light-years, to break our hearts?

That's what life is, just one learning experience after another, and when you're through with all the learning experiences you graduate and what you get for a diploma is, you die.

For someone to be taken seriously it was valuable to have the appearance of someone who deserved to be taken seriously.

I did that for 40 years or more. I never had any writer's block. I got up in the morning, sat down at the typewriter - now, computer - lit up a cigarette.

I'm doing a book, 'Chasing Science,' about the pleasures of science as a spectator sport.

When you're...stepping over a guy on the sidewalk...does it ever occur to you to think, 'Wow. Maybe our system doesn't work?'

A man's sorrow runs uphill; true it is difficult for him to bear, but it is also difficult for him to keep.

When people come to me saying they want to kill themselves, I tell them, "What’s your rush? You can kill yourself any time you like. So calm down. Suicide is a positive act." And they do calm down.

I've been to Australia several times, and I just like the earthiness; it's part of the culture. That's a really good vibe to be around.

I think when people are repressing things, or burying things, that can manifest in all sorts of ways.

Our attitudes cannot stop our feelings, but they can keep our feelings from stopping us.

Let others either envy or pity me; I care not, so long as I enjoy myself.

Encourage everyone you meet with a smile or compliment. Make them feel better when you leave their presence and they will always be glad to see you coming.

Bad evangelism says: I'm right, you're wrong, and I would love to tell you about it

I don't really view communism as a bad thing.