“Science fiction is the branch of literature that deals with the effects of change on people in the real world as it can be projected into the past, the future, or to distant places. It often concerns itself with scientific or technological change, and it usually involves matters whose importance is greater than the individual or the community; often civilization or the race itself is in danger.” PeopleWorldRealMatterPastLiteratureIndividualCommunityDealsRaceFictionGreaterEffectsDangerCivilizationConcernImportanceScience FictionBranchesReal WorldTechnologicalTechnological Change Book:Road to Science Fiction 2 Source: Road to Science Fiction 2
“Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.” IfsWritingMayStoriesSeemsTodayIndividualFictionEssenceSalvationScience FictionCriticsPhilosopherSavedCoreThriveCrucialCornyFiction Stories Author:Isaac Asimov
“You are never alone in Afghanistan. You are always in the company of others, usually family. You don't understand yourself really as an individual, you understand yourself as part of something bigger than yourself. Family is so central to your identity, to how you make sense of your world, it is very dramatic, and therefore an amazing source of storytelling, a source of fiction for me.” WorldIndividualFictionCompanyIdentitySourceBiggerStorytellingMake SenseDramaticAfghanistanSomething Bigger Than Yourself Author:Khaled Hosseini
“A great novelist excels on the small scale and the large, the individual leaf and root as well as the forest; good fiction convinces us that the imaginary is real by selecting exactly the right detail and rendering it perfectly.” WellsRealIndividualFictionRootsDetailsScalesForestsNovelistsConvinceImaginaryLeafsRenderingConvince Us Author:Laura Miller
“But there are no institutions on earth which enable each separate person to have a hand in the exercise of Power, for Power is command, and everyone cannot command. Sovereignty of the people is, therefore, nothing but a fiction, and one which must in the long run prove destructive of individual liberties.” PeoplePersonsLongHandsRunningEarthIndividualFictionLibertyExerciseProveInstitutionsCommandDestructiveLong RunsSovereigntyIndividual Liberty Book:On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth Source: On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth
“Fiction doesn't appeal to me because it can describe physical appearances exhaustively or because it can offer access to the inner depths of an array of human characters - neither that kind of "realism" of bodily surfaces nor of individual psychologies seems particularly realistic to me.” HumansKindCharacterSeemsIndividualFictionPsychologyOffersDepthAppearanceSurfaceAccessAppealsRealisticRealismPhysical Appearance Author:Ben Lerner
“I am drawn, as a reader, to detail-drenched stories about human lives affected as much by the internal as by the external, the kind of fiction that Jane Smiley nicely describes as 'first and foremost about how individuals fit, or don't fit, into their social worlds.'” WorldFirstsHumansKindStoriesIndividualSocialFictionReaderFitDetailsHuman LifeInternalsAffectedJaneSmiley Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“The professions of novelist and journalist are very separate. As a novelist, you are ultimately working for yourself. Yes, you need the approval of a publisher and an audience, but what is valued in fiction writing - style, individual voice, insight - is scorned by the editor who is combing through your newspaper article.” NeedsWritingIndividualVoiceFictionAudienceStyleInsightProfessionNewspapersJournalistNovelistsEditorsArticlesApprovalPublishersFiction WritingWriting StyleScorned Author:Jon Weisman
“Jay-Z isn't actually any better than James Joyce even though more people understand him. I'm more interested in what's meaningful within the lives of individuals. And fiction will always be central to the lives of certain people, which is all that matters.” PeopleMatterCertainIndividualFictionMeaningfulJoyce Author:Matthew Specktor
“One thing that fiction does is it allows us to take big picture questions, big issues, big moral and socio-political changes and see how they play out on real people's lives, with real individuals.” PeopleDoeRealPlayBigsPoliticalIndividualFictionMoralIssuesOne ThingBig PicturePolitical Change Author:Ben H. Winters
“I think that fiction has this special responsibility or this special ability to help people to empathize, to demand of people that they understand other individuals and other people's experiences.” PeopleThinkingHelpingIndividualAbilityFictionResponsibilitySpecialDemand Author:Ben H. Winters
“Fiction leaves us so much work to do, allows the individual so much input; you have to see, you have to hear, you have to taste the madeleine, and while you are seemingly passive in your chair, you have to travel.” IndividualFictionTasteChairsPassiveInputMadeleines Author:Hilary Mantel