Quotessence
Home / Authors / William Gibson
William Gibson

William Gibson Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleThinkingCyberpunkIfsWritingWayFictionScience FictionKnowsTechnologyBookFirstsImagineTryingCultureNeuromancerWorldYearsCertainCyberspace

Famous William Gibson Quotes

“I think the least important thing about science fiction for me is its predictive capacity. Its record for being accurately predictive is really, really poor! If you look at the whole history of science fiction, what people have said is going to happen, what writers have said is going to happen, and what actually happened - it's terrible.”

PeopleIfsThinkingLooksSaidImportantWholeHappensPoorFictionRecordsHappenedTerribleCapacityImportant ThingsScience FictionHistory Of Science
Author:William Gibson
Create image

“I had a lot of issues with the genre, and I probably even had issues with the whole idea of genre. I was coming into it with a certain degree of outsider attitude, and I didn't have a long-term plan. But I think the way it's worked out, it's sort of warped into what I suppose you could say is my own genre. If people like my books, they have some idea of what the next one will be like.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayLongBookIdeasWholeCertainNextTermMy OwnAttitudeIssuesPlansDegreesGenreLong TermOutsidersThe Next One
Author:William Gibson
Create image

“Maybe I've been a small part of the democratisation of celebrity, because I've been fascinated by it, and when it started to happen to me to the very limited extent that it happens to writers in North America, I was exposed to people who had the disease of celebrity. People who had raging, raging, life-threatening celebrity, people who would be in danger if they were left alone on the street without their minders. It's a great anthropological privilege to be there.”

PeopleIfsHappensWould BeAmericaLeftStreetsDangerDiseasePrivilegeRageExposedFascinatedThreateningLeft AloneNorth AmericaSmall Parts
Author:William Gibson
Create image

“I'm very primitive in terms of economics. The kind of new business in which stock gets more valuable because the company grows, but there must be limits to growth. But if publishing is expanding to fill that retail space, it seems like there may be a necessary and unpleasant correction waiting down the road. How many books to people WANT?”

PeopleIfsWantKindMayBookSeemsGrowsWaitingGrowthTermSpaceCompanyLimitsEconomicsValuablePrimitivePublishingExpandingCorrectionsDown The RoadRetailNew Business
Author:William Gibson
Create image

“There's an idea called "gray man", in the security business, that I find interesting. They teach people to dress unobtrusively. Chinos instead of combat pants, and if you really need the extra pockets, a better design conceals them. They assume, actually, that the bad guys will shoot all the guys wearing combat pants first, just to be sure.”

PeopleIfsMenNeedsFirstsIdeasGuyInterestingTeachSecurityDesignDressesAssumingExtrasPocketsGrayCombatPantsBad Guys
Author:William Gibson
Create image

“You know what your trouble is? You're the kind who always reads the handbook. Anything people build, any kind of technology, it's going to have some specific purpose. It's for doing something that somebody already understands. But if it's new technology, it'll open areas nobody's ever thought of before. You read the manual, man, and you won't play around with it, not the same way. And you get all funny when somebody else uses it to do something you never thought of.”

PeopleIfsKnowsMenWayKindPlayUsePurposeTechnologyTroubleAreasNew TechnologyManuals
Author:William Gibson
Create image