Judge me by my deeds, though they are few, rather than my words, though they are many.

You can't have it both ways. You can't have both free will and a benevolent higher power who protects you from yourself.

It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand.

The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing.

I'm sometimes asked how I would like to be remembered. I've had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and science populariser. Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a writer - one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well.

Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.

There's no real objection to escapism, in the right places... We all want to escape occasionally. But science fiction is often very far from escapism, in fact you might say that science fiction is escape into reality... It's a fiction which does concern itself with real issues: the origin of man; our future. In fact I can't think of any form of literature which is more concerned with real issues, reality.