As a child I read science fiction but from the very beginnings of my reading for pleasure I read a lot of non-fictional history particularly historical biography.

As a kid I wanted to write science fiction and I was never without a book. Later I really got into being a scientist and never thought I'd be writing novels.

Dune is the bestselling science fiction book of all time. It's something you really need to read in your lifetime. If you're going to read The Lord of the Rings which everyone should then you have to read Dune too.

I got to spend all of my time every day at work reading and editing papers about cutting-edge technical research and getting paid for it. Then I'd go home at night and turn what I learned into science fiction stories.

I've always been a big fan of science fiction and of the worlds of the spiritual and the mystic.

I would be more frightened as a writer if people thought my movies were like science fiction.

I wrote the very first stories in science fiction which dealt with homosexuality The World Well Lost and Affair With a Green Monkey.

In science fiction you can also test out your own realities.

One of the reasons I did this because I wasn't really looking for another science fiction film was that my daughter can see it. She's 9 and it's really a good film for all ages.

When we see the shadow on our images are we seeing the time 11 minutes ago on Mars? Or are we seeing the time on Mars as observed from Earth now? It's like time travel problems in science fiction. When is now when was then?

Now Venus is an extremely hostile environment and as such presents a lot of challenges for a science fiction author who wants to create life there. However as I began to research it more thoroughly I found myself intrigued by the possibilities the world offers.

Some ideas you have to chew on then roll them around a lot play with them before you can turn them into funky science fiction.

Science fiction has a way of letting you talk about where we are in the world and letting you be a bit of a pop philosopher without being didactic.

Science fiction has its own history its own legacy of what's been done what's been superseded what's so much part of the furniture it's practically part of the fabric now what's become no more than a joke... and so on. It's just plain foolish as well as comically arrogant to ignore all this to fail to do the most basic research.

I think a lot of people are frightened of technology and frightened of change and the way to deal with something you're frightened of is to make fun of it. That's why science fiction fans are dismissed as geeks and nerds.

A lot of what the 'Culture' is about is a reaction to all the science fiction I was reading in my very early teens.

My point has always been that ever since the Industrial Revolution science fiction has been the most important genre there is.

Science fiction is trying to find alternative ways of looking at realities.

Tasmanian history is a study of human isolation unprecedented except in science fiction - namely complete isolation from other humans for 10 000 years.

Science fiction encourages us to explore... all the futures good and bad that the human mind can envision.

Invented languages have often been created in tandem with entire invented universes and most conlangers come to their craft by way of fantasy and science fiction.

In Poland my audience is all women between 18 and 30. At U.S. conventions you have the fantasy and science fiction crowd. At Harvard you have an entirely different audience. It's so schizophrenic.

I think if I'm going to do a science fiction I'm going to go down a new path that I want to do.

Science fiction is becoming more of a diverse kind of genre.