Escapist Quotes

“Haven't you noticed, too, on the part of nearly everyone you know, a growing rebellion against the present? And an increasing longing for the past? I have. Never before in all my long life have I heard so many people wish that they lived 'at the turn of the century,' or 'when life was simpler,' or 'worth living,' or 'when you could bring children into the world and count on the future,' or simply 'in the good old days.' People didn't talk that way when I was young! The present was a glorious time! But they talk that way now.

For the first time in man's history, man is desperate to escape the present. Our newsstands are jammed with escape literature, the very name of which is significant. Entire magazines are devoted to fantastic stories of escape - to other times, past and future, to other worlds and planets - escape to anywhere but here and now. Even our larger magazines, book publishers and Hollywood are beginning to meet the rising demand for this kind of escape. Yes, there is a craving in the world like a thirst, a terrible mass pressure that you can almost feel, of millions of minds struggling against the barriers of time. I am utterly convinced that this terrible mass pressure of millions of minds is already, slightly but definitely, affecting time itself. In the moments when this happens - when the almost universal longing to escape is greatest - my incidents occur. Man is disturbing the clock of time, and I am afraid it will break. When it does, I leave to your imagination the last few hours of madness that will be left to us; all the countless moments that now make up our lives suddenly ripped apart and chaotically tangled in time.

Well, I have lived most of my life; I can be robbed of only a few more years. But it seems too bad - this universal craving to escape what could be a rich, productive, happy world. We live on a planet well able to provide a decent life for every soul on it, which is all ninety-nine of a hundred human beings ask. Why in the world can't we have it? ("I'm Scared")”
― Jack Finney, American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now

“You can be a bad experiencer and still be an overly mature person.”
― Abhaidev, The Influencer: Speed Must Have a Limit

“That spring was the start of everything, for me. Before then, I might have been half-asleep, drifting through life.”
― Lucy Foley, The Invitation

“Don't be tricked by the verisimilitude into forgetting this is fiction!”
― Sha Li

“Now the city is at its loveliest. The crowds of summer and autumn have gone, the air has a new freshness, the light has that pale-gold quality unique to this time of year. There have been several weeks of this weather now, without a drop of rain.”
― Lucy Foley, The Invitation

“Sometimes people dismiss SF and fantasy for being escapist...however, it is anything but. SF comes from its respective authors’ societies, a reflection of the world’s present, its history and its future. That world used to be overwhelmingly American, but it isn’t anymore, and needn’t be.”
― Lavie Tidhar

“What the culture of get rich quick does to our people is the escapist mentality becomes prevalent, giving birth to the syndrome of economic refugees.”
― Sunday Adelaja

“Enforced seclusion from society and personal introspection are not the product of a brilliant intellectual insight or a calculated election. Escape was necessary, reality proved too harsh.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“As the first ray of the vibrant sun poured in the room, her decision had been made. She would not leave things and run away anymore. She had to face the facts of life. Of course, she was not so strong to come in front of him, but she would not be an escapist either.”
― Neelam Saxena Chandra, Soul Seekers

“Fantasy is escapist — and that’s its greatest strength, for through escape we rediscover wonder, courage, and the boundless power of imagination.”
― Dark Night Beacon, Beacon of the Dark Night: Shining Hope Through the Shadows