“I have come to prefer something looser, a rough sort of definition which says simply that science fiction attempts to portray that which does not exist, a speculative reality, but endeavors to explore the consequences of such a speculation in a rigorous, systematic, and scientifically plausible way.”
Introduction (p. vi)
Thorns (1967)
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Robert Silverberg 88
American speculative fiction writer and editor 1935Related quotes

The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination (1978)

“Do not speculate, Sedenko, on things for which no evidence exists. You will waste your time.”
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Source: Broca's Brain (1979), Chapter 9, “Science Fiction—A Personal View” (p. 166)

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Source: The God of Jane: A Psychic Manifesto (1981), p. 58
Context: When we believe that science or religion "has the truth," we stop our speculations. While still referring to the theory of evolution, science accepts it as a fact, about existence, and therefore any speculation that threatens that theory becomes almost heretical. So often it seems that there is no other choice in the matter of man's origin than a meaningless universe and an earth populated by creatures who fight for survival, or a universe created by Christianity's objectified God. And to me, at least, the Eastern religions present no acceptable answers, either.

[Price, Robert M., w:Robert M. Price, The Amazing Colossal Apostle: The Search for the Historical Paul, 2012, Signature Books, 1-56085-216-X, 249]