Mark Fisher Quotes

A Scanner Darkly' is one of Dick's bleakest novels, and almost certainly his saddest.

When I wrote 'Neuromancer', I had a list in my head of all the things the future was assumed to be which it would not be in the book I was about to write. In a sense, I intended 'Neuromancer', among other things, to be a critique of all the aspects of science fiction that no longer satisfied me.

I've read plenty of J.G. Ballard, but I'm not really a Ballardian. I've met Ballardians, and I know when I can't compete. I like Ballard in his relatively unchallenging apocalyptic mode: 'Vermilion Sands,' 'The Drowned World,' 'The Burning World,' 'The Crystal World.'

I've always liked authors such as Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury.

I always like Iain Banks science fiction stuff and William Gibson's cyberpunk stuff from the 1980s.

Honestly, I would never say, 'Oh, I've decided not to read 'The Left Hand of Darkness' because I've seen 'Blade Runner.' I've decided not to read 'Neuromancer' because I've seen 'Blade Runner.''

Every new generation of SF writers remakes cyberpunk - a genre often laced with dystopian subtexts - in its own image.

I could talk about Blade Runner forever.

It was not until the appearance of cyberpunk in the 1980s that SF began to grapple in a broadly meaningful way with the reality of computers as something other than giant mainframes tended by crewcut IBM nerds.

I grew up reading Stephen King, Peter Straub, Clive Barker, Robert McCammon, Isaac Asimov's nonfiction books, and Roald Dahl.

Margaret Atwood was the author who took me out of children's literature and guided me towards adult literature.

There are so many stories to tell in the worlds of science fiction, the worlds of fantasy and horror that to confine yourself to even doing historical revisionist fiction, whatever you want to call it - mash-ups, gimmick lit, absurdist fiction - I don't know if I want to do that anymore.

I think Phil Dick was particularly interesting in that, first of all, he was a very modern man and a very modern thinker, but I don't know what demons drove him.

'Newhart' ran the longest, and it was great to have a regular role, but I run into a lot of film fans, and they ask me about 'Blade Runner.' I was grateful to be a part of that.

I love Richard Yates, his work, and the novel, Revolutionary Road. It's a devastating novel.

There is a great deal of cyberpunk that I admire, especially the work of William Gibson which I think is excellent. Somehow he speaks from his own heart and cyber punk is what comes out.

'Emma' is my favorite Jane Austen novel - one of my favorite novels period; a novel about intelligence outsmarting itself, about a complicated, nuanced, irresistible heroine who does everything wrong.

I like to take certain aspects of genre fiction and modify them in my own way. 'Your Republic Is Calling You' follows the form of a spy novel, but it leads readers into a world of Kafkaesque irrationality.

I first conceived of my far-future setting 'Punktown' in 1980, and though it contains 'punk' in its name, the term 'cyberpunk' hadn't been coined yet. I took my inspiration strictly from punk music.

I've always thought of science fiction as being, at some level, a 19th-century business.

I think the future stopped looking American when you think back to Blade Runner and Neuromancer, when it started to look more Japanese.

'The Man In High Castle' is one of Dick's most imaginative and captivating works, and certainly one of my favorites.

When I saw 'Blade Runner,' my understanding was that 'Blade Runner' and 'Alien' were sequels to each other - or they were related. They were set in the same world.

As for genre, my adult books are usually filed under science fiction / fantasy, although some stores put them into romance, and few have stuck them into horror. I consider all my books a mix of steampunk and urban fantasy.

'Snowpiercer' is a little bit more experimental, I think, and crafted for a slightly different audience. 'The Giver' is more about teen angst.