“There is more to a science fiction story than the science it contains. There is also the story.”

—  Isaac Asimov

Robot Dreams (1986), introduction
General sources

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Isaac Asimov 303
American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston Uni… 1920–1992

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“The science fiction stories are not for the promotion of science and are not only science stories; but stories.”

Media Kashigar (1956–2017) Iranian translator, writer and poet

Source: Iranian Students News Agency, 2004 http://www.isna.ir/news/8307-08004/%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B4%D9%8A%DA%AF%D8%B1-%D9%82%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A8%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%AA-%D9%83%D9%87-%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%B7-%D9%86%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%86%D8%AF%DA%AF%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A-%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B1

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“Science fiction is no more written for scientists than ghost stories are written for ghosts.”

Brian W. Aldiss (1925–2017) British science fiction author

Penguin Science Fiction (1961) Introduction

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Arthur C. Clarke photo

“One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of mind. Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

As quoted in The Making of Kubrick's 2001 (1970) by Jerome Agel, p. 300
1970s
Context: One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of mind. Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. Two-thirds of 2001 is realistic — hardware and technology — to establish background for the metaphysical, philosophical, and religious meanings later.

“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.”

Theodore Sturgeon (1918–1985) American speculative fiction writer

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

Isaac Asimov photo

“Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence, the concept around which it revolves, has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

"My Own View" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1978) edited by Robert Holdstock; later published in Asimov on Science Fiction (1981)
General sources

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“First-rate science fiction was, and remains, more interesting than second-rate art.”

Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist

Ibid.
Essays and reviews, From the Land of Shadows (1982)

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Ray Bradbury photo

“Science Fiction is the fiction of ideas.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

The Paris Review interview (2010)
Context: Science Fiction is the fiction of ideas. Ideas excite me, and as soon as I get excited, the adrenaline gets going and the next thing I know I’m borrowing energy from the ideas themselves. Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.

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