'The Devil in the Dark' impressed me because it presented the idea, unusual in science fiction then and now, that something weird, and even dangerous, need not be malevolent. That is a lesson that many of today's politicians have yet to learn.

Getting information from the internet is like getting a glass of water from the Niagara Falls.

I want to be remembered most as a writer - one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well.

In this single galaxy of ours there are eighty-seven thousand million suns. [...] In challenging it, you would be like ants attempting to label and classify all the grains of sand in all the deserts of the world. [...] It is a bitter thought, but you must face it. The planets you may one day possess. But the stars are not for man.

But he knew well enough that any man in the right circumstances could be dehumanised by panic.

My objection to organized religion is the premature conclusion to ultimate truth that it represents.

I don't believe in God but I'm very interested in her.