Why is it, I wonder, that anyone who displays superior athletic ability is an object of admiration to his classmates, while one who displays superior mental ability is an object of hatred?

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

It seems to me, Golan, that the advance of civilization is nothing but an exercise in the limiting of privacy.

That's the harm of Close Encounters: that it convinces tens of millions that that's what just science fiction is.

Early in my school career, I turned out to be an incorrigible disciplinary problem. I could understand what the teacher was saying as fast as she could say it, I found time hanging heavy, so I would occasionally talk to my neighbor. That was my great crime, I talked in school.

It is in meeting the great tests that mankind can most successfully rise to great heights. Out of danger and restless insecurity comes the force that pushes mankind to newer and loftier conquests.

I have never written a book that didn't teach me far more than it taught my reader.