“Oh, the Patriot Act. I read that in its original title, 1984.”
Rene Balcer (1954) screenwriter, producer and director
Det. Mike Logan in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode Stress Position.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
“I was about ten when I first read 1984 and Lord of the Flies, both of which absolutely terrified me”
especially 1984, because I figured out that Julia, Winston Smith's lover, would have been born the same year I was. I knew these books were fiction, but I was far too young to have a grasp on the political or cultural realities behind them — I had no distance or detachment from what I read: it seemed too real to me, too possible.
Apocalypse Descending (2002)
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Elizabeth Hand33
American writer 1957Related quotes
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Philip Doddridge (1702–1751) English Nonconformist leader, educator, and hymnwriter
Epigram on his Family Arms, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) American author
As quoted in "Vertex Interviews Philip K. Dick" by Arthur Byron Cover, in Vertex, Vol. 1, no. 6 (February 1974) http://2010philipkdickfans.philipkdickfans.com/frank/vertexin.htm <br class="br">Context: I started reading SF when I was about twelve and I read all I could, so any author who was writing about that time, I read. But there's no doubt who got me off originally and that was A. E. van Vogt. There was in van Vogt's writing a mysterious quality, and this was especially true in The World of Null A. All the parts of that book did not add up; all the ingredients did not make a coherency. Now some people are put off by that. They think that's sloppy and wrong, but the thing that fascinated me so much was that this resembled reality more than anybody else's writing inside or outside science fiction. … reality really is a mess, and yet it's exciting. The basic thing is, how frightened are you of chaos? And how happy are you with order? Van Vogt influenced me so much because he made me appreciate a mysterious chaotic quality in the universe which is not to be feared.
Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) American speculative fiction writer
Phlogiston interview (1995)
Context: When I started writing my first novel,... And Call Me Conrad, they always say: "Write about what you know" and I said "Well, if I get a nice sort of combination SF and Fantasy with these resonances from Greek Mythology it might be pretty good. It would also give me a chance to start filling in my background on all those things I don't know much about but should if I want to be an SF writer."
So I sat down and made a list of everything I felt I should know more about. Astrophysics, oceanography, marine biology, genetics... Then when I'd finished the list I read one book in each of these areas. When I'd finished I went back and read a second book until I'd read ten books in each area. I thought that it wouldn't turn me into a terrific, fantastic expert but I'd at least have enough material there to know if I was saying something wrong. And I'd also know where to turn to get the information I want to make it right.
While I was doing this, to keep the words and cheques flowing I wrote books involving mythology. And once I started picking up things involving astrophysics I'd write stories that played with those sorts of things. So that's why I started out with mythology.
Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) Irish physician and writer
Source: The Citizen of the World, Or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, Residing in London, to His Friends in the Country, by Dr. Goldsmith
“When I read about the dangers of drinking, I gave up reading”
Henny Youngman (1906–1998) American comedian
Variant: When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.