Unless we dream the best dreams of which we are capable, the future will be poorer than it might be.

There are infimal readers, readers who want to read the same book over and over, but will never read the same book twice.

Science fiction is essentially a kind of fiction in which people learn more about how to live in the real world, visiting imaginary worlds unlike our own, in order to investigate by way of pleasurable thought-experiments how things might be done differently.

The world is not bound to get better as a result of new discoveries in science and technology, nor is it bound to get worse, there will simply be new opportunities for making it better or worse.

Unless we dream the best dreams of which we are capable, the future will be poorer than it might be.

...the vital point to remember is that the swine who just sent your pearl of a story back with nothing but a coffee-stain and a printed rejection slip can be wrong. You cannot take it for granted that he is wrong, but you have an all-important margin of hope that might be enough to keep you going.

Not merely one of the finest fantasy novels of recent years, but one of the finest ever. Should not be missed