“The most underrated of all contemporary American writers of fiction.”
William March (1893–1954) United States Marine, novelist, short story writer
Alistair Cooke
The Novel of the Future (1969)
“The most underrated of all contemporary American writers of fiction.”
William March (1893–1954) United States Marine, novelist, short story writer
Alistair Cooke
Nelson Algren book Nonconformity
Nonconformity (1953/1996)
Context: The American middle class's faith in personal comfort as an end in itself is, in essence, a denial of life. And it has been imposed upon American writers and playwrights strongly enough to cut them off from their deeper sources. The shortcut to comfort is called “specialization,” and in an eye-ear-nose-and-throat doctor this makes sense. But in a writer it is fatal. The less he sees of other writers the more of a writer he will ultimately become. When he sees scarcely anyone except other writers, he is ready for New York.
“Science fiction offers its writers chances of embarrassment that no other form of fiction does.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …
Robot Dreams (1986), introduction
General sources
“For a writer, life must be the focus that death illuminates daily.”
José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor
Source: Para un escritor la vida debe ser el foco que la muerte ilumina a diario.
Source: Zárate, Y. (2019). "José Baroja". En revista Momentos Ahora o nunca. Número 139. Tlaxcala, México; p. 24.
Neil Gaiman (1960) English fantasy writer
"Mythcon 35 Guest of Honor Speech", in Mythprint (October 2004)
Don DeLillo (1936) American novelist, playwright and essayist
'The American Strangeness: An Interview with Don DeLillo' by Gerald Howard, The Hungry Mind Review, #47 , 1997
Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist
Darwin Among the Machines
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part III - The Germs of Erewhon and of Life and Habit
Context: Day by day, however, the machines are gaining ground upon us; day by day we are becoming more subservient to them; more men are daily bound down as slaves to tend them, more men are daily devoting the energies of their whole lives to the development of mechanical life. The upshot is simply a question of time, but that the time will come when the machines will hold the real supremacy over the world and its inhabitants is what no person of a truly philosophic mind can for a moment question.
“Like most science-fiction writers, Trout knew almost nothing about science.”
Kurt Vonnegut book Breakfast of Champions
Breakfast of Champions (1973)
“Bad writers have influences. Good writers steal.”
S.M. Stirling (1953) Canadian-American author, primarily of speculative fiction
Dragon Page Cover to Cover interview, Episode 372A (8 September 2009)