The Big Book of Science Fiction Quotes

“Some people believe that it is all right if humans eat creatures from other planets, but when the reverse takes place they raise a hue and cry, call for military assistance, demand punitive expeditions, etc.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“an institution is where they put Aunt Maggy when she began collecting Wheaties in a stamp album.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“I began to leaf through it and suddenly I experienced a slight, astonished sense of dizziness that I shall not describe, since this is the story not of my emotions but of Uqbar and Tlön and Orbis Tertius.”
― Ann VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“Every era gets the pope it deserves,” Bishop FitzPatrick observed somewhat gloomily today at breakfast. “The proper pope for our times is a robot, certainly. At some future date it may be desirable for the pope to be a whale, an automobile, a cat, a mountain.”
― Ann VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“I did not have my tuning fork any longer. Imagine the perplexity of a man outside time and space, who has lost his watch, and his measuring rod, and his tuning fork. I believe, sir, that it is indeed this state which constitutes death.”
― Ann VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“half-drunken computer”
― Ann VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“This kind of eclectic stance also suggests a simple yet effective definition for science fiction: it depicts the future, whether in a stylized or realistic manner.”
― Ann VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“Zozulya wrote several stories with a science-fictional quality. In “Story of Ak and Humanity,” citizens vote to bestow total authority on their government, essentially making it totalitarian, and the government reciprocates with a demand that all citizens prove their right to exist, indicating that failure to comply will result in “departure from life” within twenty-four hours. His tale “Moscow of the Future” featured a community of fifty thousand writers, all in their twenties, with no children, with the implication that the children have been taken away to healthier, less subversive zones. “The”
― Ann VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“determined”
― Ann VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“You see, if the function of a tool is removed, you have Art. Very witty, don’t you think?”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“Betly was a successful man and thought that everyone else should love life as much as he did.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“The snow came quickly, white hornets stinging in the thin atmospheric night.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“She watched us go with envious fear.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“After the last swallow, the glass walls, deprived of humidity, decompose rather quickly, obliging drinkers to order another round immediately.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“He also got to write a book about whiskey a few years before his death from cancer, which entailed driving around Scotland and sampling the product, engendering perhaps thousands of envious curses from writers around the world.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“I knew it for an hour on the autobahn, under a gray Rhenish sky, and forgot it in your arms.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“the soft weight of Europe pulled over us like a quilt.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“Civilization diminishes proportionally to the distance from Paris.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“He had brand-new pink-jade biogem eyes, and they made him look like a geriatric rabbit.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“Their settlement was famous for its dissolving architecture; at any moment a balcony might disappear and drop people to their deaths. This did not happen so often that it was monotonous, but often enough to make living there exciting.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“It was a trivial entertainment piece, capable of neither harm nor good.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is in deplorable condition. Those monumental rocks, once enveloped in eternal night, are lit up now, and to make matters worse, every crag is carved with initials and monograms.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars’ worth of jelly beans cascaded down on the expresstrip.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“there is a kind of connectedness between the seemingly random questions of very small kids.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“But I can communicate with you via this small metal contraption (like an old television set): I see your mirrored face and hear your voice; you receive my daily messages and the reflection of my image.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“Complete knowledge of any alien physiology could be obtained within minutes by Educator Tape, but the skill to use that knowledge—especially in surgery—came only with time.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“I was thinking, we’re kind of distant cousins, aren’t we, us and the horses. But compared to that thing up there—we’re brothers. You know?”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“Earth people made him uncomfortable, particularly in groups.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“The trouble with logic is that its relationship with reality is usually obscure.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction

“fighting the same savage battles with the giant rabbits for each other’s carrion”
― Jeff VanderMeer, The Big Book of Science Fiction