Gene Wolfe Quotes

When I think about myself as a writer, for sure I am a science fiction writer. The tools of extrapolation, the tools of anticipating the future - those are science fictional questions.

In really, really good science fiction, the line between the science and the fiction is blurry.

I think the least important thing about science fiction for me is its predictive capacity.

Science fiction writers aren't in the prediction business; they're in the speculation business, using 'hasn't happened' or 'hasn't happened yet' to create entertaining scenarios that may or may not anticipate future realities.

Science fiction, as I mentioned before, writes about what is neither impossible nor possible; the fact is that, when the question of possibility comes up in science fiction, the author can only reply that nobody knows. We haven't been there yet. We haven't discovered that yet. Science fiction hasn't happened.

...You believe that the kind of story you want to tell might be best received by the science fiction and fantasy audience. I hope you're right, because in many ways this is the best audience in the world to write for. They're open-minded and intelligent. They want to think as well as feel, understand as well as dream. Above all, they want to be led into places that no one has ever visited before. It's a privilege to tell stories to these readers, and an honour when they applaud the tale you tell.

Every moment of a science fiction story must represent the triumph of writing over world-building.

When I was a teenager, I got into SF, quite heavily, and that too has had a major impact on my writing.

I love science fiction.

Space opera has always given authors a way to include a vast array of ideas and concepts. The opportunities it provides are limitless. Long may it reign.

My writing has a lot of surprising twists.

For all I know, I am beginning with the ending. My page one can wind up a year later as page two hundred, if it's still even around.

Fantasy is fantasy. It's fiction. It's not meant to be a textbook. I don't believe in letting research overwhelm the fiction. That's a danger of science fiction in particular, as opposed to fantasy. A lot of writers forget that what they're doing is supposed to be art.

Science fiction is one of the smartest genres around because you have to have so much forethought.

Science fiction literature's focus is on ideas, the concept of change, and the impact on humanity. Those concepts are hard to capture on film. They work better in the mind.

'Jurassic Park' and 'Star Wars' shoved me into loving sci-fi and film in general when I was a barely coherent 3-year-old. And 'Lord of the Rings' took me to another planet entirely. Before that series, I knew I loved writing, but after, I knew that I had to write.

You never know what's going to happen when somebody endeavors to do a true crime story. It can be horribly misleading.

I've been writing since 1973. I've written nonfiction things of that nature, but I'm probably best known for crime fiction and, to some extent, horror fiction.

As a science-fiction writer, I feel my responsibility is to look ahead and see the dangers of what might happen and try to warn people of the potential pitfalls.

I could have joined West Brom or Brighton. What would have happened had I joined one of them? I do not want to think about it. I do not think about it.

Science fiction is what we point to when we say it.

I have a long love of fantasy and science-fiction.

The beauty of literature - also its limit - is that it is inescapably personal, even if you're writing science fiction.

There's no use in asking what if. No one could ever give you the answers. I try, I really do, but it's hard for me to accept this way of thinking. I'm always wondering about the what-ifs, about the road not taken.

And if you are honest about the words coming out of your characters' mouths, you'll find that you've let yourself in for a fair amount of criticism.