I think the first duty of all art, including fiction of any kind, is to entertain. That is to say, to hold interest. No matter how worthy the message of something, if it's dull, you're just not communicating.
Poul AndersonHappier are all men than the dwellers in Faerie โ or the gods, for that matterโฆBetter a life like a falling star, bright across the dark, than a deathlessness that can see naught above or beyond itselfโฆthe day draws nigh when Faerie shall fade, the Erlking himself shrink to a woodland sprite and then to nothing, and the gods go under. And the worst of it is, I cannot believe it wrong that the immortals will not live forever.
Poul AndersonTwo lives met across death and centuries. To ask what it meant is meaningless. There is no destiny. But sometimes there is bravery
Poul AndersonSo much American science fiction is parochial - not as true now as it was years ago, but the assumption is one culture in the future, more or less like ours, and with the same ideals, the same notions of how to do things, just bigger and flashier technology. Well, you know darn well it doesn't work that way.
Poul Anderson