Theodore Sturgeon Quotes

Theodore Sturgeon was an American writer, primarily of fantasy, science fiction and horror. He was also a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 200 stories.

Sturgeon's most famous work may be the science fiction novel More Than Human , an expansion of "Baby Is Three" . More Than Human won the 1954 International Fantasy Award as the year's best novel and the Science Fiction Writers of America ranked "Baby is Three" number five among the "Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time" to 1964. Ranked by votes for all of their pre-1965 novellas, Sturgeon was second among authors, behind Robert Heinlein.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted Sturgeon in 2000, its fifth class of two deceased and two living writers.

✵ 26. February 1918 – 8. May 1985

Works

Venus Plus X
Venus Plus X
Theodore Sturgeon
More Than Human
More Than Human
Theodore Sturgeon
Microcosmic God
Microcosmic God
Theodore Sturgeon
E Pluribus Unicorn
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon: 44   quotes 1   like

Famous Theodore Sturgeon Quotes

“Live long and prosper”

Source: Amok Time

“90% of everything is crap.”

Venture Science Fiction (March 1958) The original expression of this has often been declared to have been "Sure, ninety percent of science fiction is crud. That's because ninety percent of everything is crud." According to Philip Klass Sturgeon made the remark during a talk at New York University around 1951. It has also commonly appeared in variant forms such as "Ninety percent of everything is crap" and is often referred to as "Sturgeon's Law" — though he himself gave that title to another phrase:
Variant: Ninety percent of everything is crud.
Context: I repeat Sturgeon's Revelation, which was wrung out of me after twenty years of wearying defense of science fiction against attacks of people who used the worst examples of the field for ammunition, and whose conclusion was that ninety percent of it is crud.
The Revelation: Ninety percent of everything is crud.
Corollary 1: The existence of immense quantities of trash in science fiction is admitted and it is regrettable; but it is no more unnatural than the existence of trash anywhere.
Corollary 2: The best science fiction is as good as the best fiction in any field.

“Science fiction, outside of poetry, is the only literary field which has no limits, no parameters whatsoever.”

As quoted in an interview with David Duncan http://www.physics.emory.edu/~weeks/misc/duncan.html
Context: Science fiction, outside of poetry, is the only literary field which has no limits, no parameters whatsoever. You can go not only into the future, but into that wonderful place called "other", which is simply another universe, another planet, another species.

Theodore Sturgeon Quotes about people

“A pig among people is a pig, he tells himself, but a pig among pigs is people.”

Section 38 (p. 118)
Venus Plus X (1960)

Theodore Sturgeon Quotes about the trip

“An ethic isn’t a fact you can look up. It’s a way of thinking.”

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 3, p. 183

Theodore Sturgeon Quotes

“We don’t believe anything we don’t want to believe.”

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 2 “Baby is Three”, p. 94
Context: That’s fairly common. We don’t believe anything we don’t want to believe.

“The idiot heard the sounds, but they had no meaning for him.”

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 1 “The Fabulous Idiot”, p. 1
Context: The idiot heard the sounds, but they had no meaning for him. He lived inside somewhere, apart, and the little link between word and significance hung broken.

“Ask the next question.”

His explanation of the meaning of a small symbol he used when writing his signature, as quoted in an interview with David Duncan (with an image of his signature) http://www.physics.emory.edu/~weeks/misc/duncan.html.
Variant: Ask the next question. And the one after that.
Context: It means "Ask the next question." Ask the next question, and the one that follows that, and the one that follows that. It's the symbol of everything humanity has ever created, and is the reason it has been created. This guy is sitting in a cave and he says, "Why can't man fly?" Well, that's the question. The answer may not help him, but the question now has been asked.
The next question is what? How? And so all through the ages, people have been trying to find out the answer to that question. We've found the answer, and we do fly. This is true of every accomplishment, whether it's technology or literature, poetry, political systems or anything else. That is it. Ask the next question. And the one after that.

“It's the Simple things that are really effective. Try to remember that.”

Professor Thaddeus MacIlhainy Nudnick, in "Two Percent Inspiration", first published in Astounding Science-Fiction (October 1941); also published in Microcosmic God : Volume II : The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon (1995), edited by Paul Williams, p. 322 ISBN 1556433018

“A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content.”

As quoted in The Issue at Hand: Studies in Contemporary Magazine Science Fiction (1964) by James Blish, p. 14

“That Heel. That lousy wart on the nose of progress.”

Character Hughie McCauley, quoting fictional space-opera hero Captain Jaundess, in "Two Percent Inspiration", first published in Astounding Science-Fiction (October 1941); also published in Microcosmic God : Volume II : The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon (1995), edited by Paul Williams, p. 322 ISBN 1556433018

“As Adam said when his wife fell out of the tree—Eve’s dropping again.”

Section 24 (p. 71)
Venus Plus X (1960)

“Morals: They’re nothing but a coded survival instinct!”

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 3, p. 175

“If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?”

Title of story about the incest taboo and social pathologies in the anthology Dangerous Visions (1967) by Harlan Ellison.

“God," he cries, dying on Mars, "God, we made it!”

published in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1959
The Man Who Lost The Sea

“It means "Ask the next question." Ask the next question, and the one that follows that, and the one that follows that. It's the symbol of everything humanity has ever created, and is the reason it has been created. This guy is sitting in a cave and he says, "Why can't man fly?"”

Well, that's the question. The answer may not help him, but the question now has been asked.
The next question is what? How? And so all through the ages, people have been trying to find out the answer to that question. We've found the answer, and we do fly. This is true of every accomplishment, whether it's technology or literature, poetry, political systems or anything else. That is it. Ask the next question. And the one after that.

His explanation of the meaning of a small symbol he used when writing his signature, as quoted in an interview with David Duncan (with an image of his signature) http://www.physics.emory.edu/~weeks/misc/duncan.html, sometime around 1980.

“Now how can you like a man without wanting him?”

she demands of herself aloud.
There is no answer. It is an article of faith with her. If you like a man, it has to be because you want him. Whoever heard of it any other way?
Section 32 (p. 101)
Venus Plus X (1960)

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