Retro Futurism Quotes

The idea that, you know - when I was growing up - that everybody would carry around a portable communicating device, that was science fiction when I was a kid.

My first encounter with science fiction was reading the work of H.G. Wells when I was nine or ten, and I don't believe 'The War of the Worlds' or 'The Time Machine' have ever been bettered. Plus, I have always had a liking for Victorian and Edwardian clothes and contraptions, which tends to color the worlds I dream up.

To me, steampunk and urban fantasy are naturally hinged together. And I think that's because I love the early gothic Victorian literature, and both things spring from that movement.

I like the idea of using cool cyberpunk stuff to tell really stupid jokes.

I always wanted to make aliens that looked like '60s aliens.

Superman was created in the late 1930s, and humankind's idea of what the future would be was very different.

When I was a kid, I'd wake up extraordinarily early every morning and turn on the television, scanning for episodes of 'The Jetsons.' For some reason, I loved the notion of a future where there would be flying cars, supercomputers, and most of all, robot maids to take care of the chores.

Well, I grew up in the '80s, which was a really massive time for sci-fi.

With the possible exception of steampunk aficionados, many reasonable people must view my fascination with Victorian and Edwardian popular fiction - mysteries, fantasy, and adventure - as eccentric or merely antiquarian.

Tame Impala is kind of psych-pop.

The future is always here in the past

I love Chicago. I lived there briefly for three months and kept a boat under one of those space-age buildings. It was very Jetsons.

The reason steampunk attracts people is that it is premised on a technology which is visible and pleasing to the naked eye, and whose moving parts are comprehensible on a human scale.

The words 'Space Age' have a quaint, nostalgic tone - sitting on midcentury modern furniture watching 'The Jetsons.'

I can't get enough of this guy called Baths. He's a total L.A. dude and really young as well. It's super-electronic, but with almost Hall & Oates-style songwriting. Without the context of the production, it could be super-cheesy, but it has amazing harmonies.

I think the great thing about 'Ashes To Ashes' is that it is very much its own show.

The term 'steampunk' itself, now a badge of honor, began as a putdown, a joke. But like 'Big Bang' in cosmology, the diss became the standard.

When I was a kid, I remember thinking, 'When we reach the year 2000, everyone will have jetpacks, and it'll be like 'The Jetsons,' and we'll fly everywhere!'

Those of us of a certain age grew up expecting that by now we would have Rosie the Robot from 'The Jetsons' in our house. And all we've got is a Roomba.

Anytime a movie or television show retreats into certain American pasts, I'm both annoyed and relieved.

Like steampunk, silkpunk is a blend of science fiction and fantasy. But while steampunk takes its inspiration from the chrome-brass-glass technology aesthetic of the Victorian era, silkpunk draws inspiration from East Asian antiquity.

When I was little, I used to think, 'That's the way people in the future are gonna dress! They'll be wearing space suits, and it will be all silver, all the time. It's gonna glitter.'

I feel like the original 'Mad Max' created such a vivid world, that to go back and re-imagine it and kind of replay in that sandbox sounds like fun to me.

We started putting '2000' at the end of our name. That was in 1985, and 2000 seemed very futuristic.

For a genre that's about looking to the future, science fiction has sure been looking backwards lately. Nostalgia is what sells best, with readers spending their money on movie tie-in novels and sequels to long-running series.