Robert J. Sawyer Quotes

It is popular to believe that in order to see clearly one must believe nothing. This may work well enough if you are observing cells under a microscope. It will not work if you are writing fiction. For the fiction writer, to believe nothing is to see nothing.

I'm very careful not to have ideas, because they're inaccurate.

The investigator should have a robust faith - and yet not believe.

I really can't write fantasy. I cannot invent a world which does not exist. And I can't read fantasy either. As soon as I realise I'm reading a book that hasn't got its roots in a reality I can comprehend, I switch off.

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

Sometimes I read a script and it's obvious from early on that it's one where the suspension of disbelief has to develop strongly from page one. Some are more reality-based.

Oxford also taught me something else - it taught me scepticism.

The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.

Anyone familiar with my work knows that I am extremely critical of all religious faiths.

I don't consider myself to be that credulous.

Because a truly skeptical position would be a very uncertain one.

To become properly acquainted with a truth, we must first have disbelieved it, and disputed against it.

I sometimes wonder why I do so much research - I look at other successful writers, and I think it must just be so relaxing to write about flying horses or something, but I have to make it plausible.

I was raised with the notion that it was OK to ask questions, and it was OK to say, I'm not sure. I believe, but I'm not quite so certain about the resurrection.

What do you know? Haven't you heard of suspension of disbelief?

I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.

True science teaches, above all, to doubt

Question everything!

A healthy skepticism, regularly exercised…

The great benefit of philosophy, which is also its great weakness, is that all its steps are taken in the spirit of doubt.

Nothing should be taken for granted, even if everybody believes it.

I respect and believe skeptics.

Skepticism is not a position; skepticism is an approach to claims, in the same way that science is not a subject but a method.