Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings

I doubt that the imagination can be suppressed. If you truly eradicated it in a child, he would grow up to be an eggplant.

At this point, realism is perhaps the least adequate means of understanding or portraying the incredible realities of our existence.

Sci-fi uses the images that sf - starting with H.G. Wells - made familiar: space travel, aliens, galactic wars and federations, time machines, et cetera, taking them literally, not caring if they are possible or even plausible. It has no interest in or relation to real science or technology. It's fantasy in space suits. Spectacle. Wizards with lasers. Kids with ray guns. I've written both, but I have to say I respect science fiction enough that I wince when people call it sci-fi.

The hunger of a dragon is slow to wake, but hard to sate.

A man wants his virility regarded. A woman wants her femininity appreciated, however indirect and subtle the indications of regard and appreciation. [Here] one is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience.

As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope.