Science begins with the world we have to live in, accepting its data and trying to explain its laws. From there, it moves toward the imagination: it becomes a mental construct, a model of a possible way of interpreting experience. The further it goes in this direction, the more it tends to speak the language of mathematics, which is really one of the languages of the imagination, along with literature and music. Art, on the other hand, begins with the world we construct, not with the world we see. It starts with the imagination, and then works toward ordinary experience.

[Science fiction is] a mode of romance with a strong inherent tendency to myth.

Americans like to make money, Canadians like to count it.

The tremendous efficiency and economy of the book has once again demonstrated itself. It's the world's most patient medium.

One doesn't bother to believe the credible: the credible is believed already, by definition. There's no adventure of the mind.

We are always in the place of beginning; there is no advance in infinity.

We must reject that most dismal and fatuous notion that education is a preparation for life.