Sci Fi Short Story Quotes

I want to show you what some people are willing to do to fulfill their crazy dream of ruling the world. Unfortunately, your kind didn't learn anything from its bloody past and kept repeating the same mistakes. Each superpower in the distant past, as well as a superpower in your time, used weapons until the inevitable end because they thought that weapons were the only solution. But all civilizations created by weapons eventually cave in and collapse like a house of cards. ~ Stjepan Varesevac Cobets

There was very little man left within his eyes - she knew a beast when she saw one, knew short, simple words worked best, most often to tame or quiet an impending attack. But in this case
"More," she breathed. ~ Erin Kellison

It was Sci-Fi and fantasy that got me reading, and Sci-Fi writers in particular have pack rat minds. They introduce all sorts of interesting themes and ideas into their books, and so for me it was a short leap to go from the fantasy and Sci-Fi genres to folklore, mythology, ancient history and philosophy. I did not read philosophy because I set out to become a philosopher; I read it because it looked interesting. ~ Terry Pratchett

My chair rolls to a stop. his voice cut short, followed by a thump and sliding sound. My wheelchair rolls forward again. I look back and see Ragnar pushing it innocently along. Sevro isn't in the hallway behind us. I frown, wondering where he went, till he bursts out of a side passage.
"You! Troll!" Sevro shouts. "I'm a terrorist warlord! Stop throwing me. You made me drop my candy!" Sevro looks at the floor of the hallway. "Wait. Where is it? Dammit, Ragnar. Where is my peanut bar? You know how many people I had to kill to get that? Six! Six!"
Ragnar chews quietly above me, and though I'm probably mistaken, I think I see him smile. ~ Pierce Brown

But there's some sort of revealing lesson here in the beyond-short-term viability-curve of advances in consumer technology. The career of videophony conforms neatly to this curve's classically annular shape: First there's some sort of terrific, sci-fi-like advance in consumer tech - like from aural to video phoning - which advance always, however, has certain un- foreseen disadvantages for the consumer; and then but the market-niches created by those disadvantages - like people's stressfully vain repulsion at their own videophonic appearance - are ingeniously filled via sheer entrepreneurial verve; and yet the very advantages of these ingenious disadvantage-compensations seem all too often to undercut the original high-tech advance, resulting in consumer-recidivism and curve-closure and massive shirt-loss for precipitant investors. In the present case, the stress- and-vanity-compensations' own evolution saw video-callers rejecting first their own faces and then even their own heavily masked and enhanced physical likenesses and finally covering the video-cameras altogether and transmitting attractively stylized static Tableaux to one another's TPs. And, behind these lens-cap dioramas and transmitted Tableaux, callers of course found that they were once again stresslessly invisible, unvainly makeup- and toupeeless and baggy-eyed behind their celebrity-dioramas, once again free - since once again unseen - to doodle, blemish-scan, manicure, crease-check - while on t ~ David Foster Wallace

Ah yes, now you're beginning to feel it. It's so satisfying to see my best efforts coming to fruition. Undoubtedly one of the most gratifying rewards of my profession. It would warm my heart - if I had one. ~ Jaye Frances

Sci-Fi is the genre that explored both possibilities: the end of our existential crisis and the end of our existence. My novel, 'The 5th Wave,' explores the latter scenario, because, frankly, I believe it represents the likeliest outcome of an extraterrestrial encounter. In short, if they're out there, we better hope they never find us. ~ Rick Yancey

And if you lose the willingness, what do you have? ~ Sabrina Benulis

A good [short story] would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit. ~ David Sedaris

Great sci-fi has never shied from tackling the Big Questions, though really great sci-fi never forgets to entertain us along the way. Shock and awe applies to art, as well. ~ Rick Yancey

The signs shifted in my mind like a kaleidoscope of visions. ~ Kelly Parra

I see you have returned, my love; and your mood is as dark as ever. Did your soldiers not adore you to your complete satisfaction? ~ Wayne Gerard Trotman

I got a couple of stories published, but the kind of money you were making for publishing a short story, I could see I wasn't going to make a living at it. ~ Hooman Majd

I am also working on a couple of short stories for anthologies. This is new to me and I'm enjoying it. ~ Judith Guest

I saw sunrises fade and burn among fleets of sparks. The moon blossomed
like a lily carved of bone ...
The Death of the Astronaut, page 390. ~ Lewis Turco

I'm a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can't, and then tries the short story, which is the most demanding form after poetry. And, failing at that, only then does he take up novel writing. ~ William Faulkner

I guess I'm just an old mad scientist at bottom. Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care not who writes the nation's laws. ~ S.J Perelman

The Law of Moronic Ubiquity: Anything in the universe that is generally considered to be idiot-proof will eventually be ruined by an idiot. ~ Ian Strang

And I feel certain that you will, because I've come to take it away. I'm from the furniture shop, and the bed isn't paid for. ~ George Sheffield

I'm very proud of Space 1999. Its success paved the way for other sci-fi shows to follow. My hope is that the DVD release will help it reach a new generation of fans. ~ Martin Landau

Really, if I'm honest, sci-fi is where my sensibility instinctively goes - I'm a big comic-book fan. ~ Seth Rogen

My favorite form is the short story. From an aesthetics stand point you really have to pare down to the bone. You can't write a throw-away scene. ~ Roger Zelazny

I'm very happy - if I can do even a little bit of work to get the short story out more, I'm thrilled. ~ George Saunders

I don't have a lot of time. I can give a poem a couple of lines, a short story a paragraph, and a novel a few pages, then if I can stop reading without a sense of loss, I do, and I go on to something else. ~ Flannery O'Connor

Connor had become a doctor just two days ago - along with all of his friends. They were hand-selected at just three years old to undergo intensive medical training as part of a controversial experiment, called Kid Docs. In the past few years, the Kid Docs program had produced some of the best doctors in the entire country, if not the world. They had some of the lowest complication rates and the highest success rates, and they had developed innovative new procedures that saved lives that were previously unsalvageable. Connor hoped that he would be among the best doctors in the world someday. But right now, he was focused on only a single thing: saving this one man's life. ~ J.W. Lynne

Into the darkness with the light of the moon beaming upon me. Bathing in the luminosity of it awakening the demon that is me! ~ Eve Masters

People often ask me about what constitutes a nerd-friendly show - like, does it have to have sci-fi elements? But I think it's just a show that satisfies the secret craving we all have to be obsessed with something and not feel at all stupid about it. ~ Dan Harmon

I was trained mainly as a short story writer and that's how I started writing, but I've also become very interested in non-fiction, just because I got a couple of magazine jobs when I was really poor and needed the money and it turned out that non-fiction was much more interesting than I thought it was. ~ David Foster Wallace

The American girl isn't ANY girl; she's a remarkable specimen in a remarkable species. ~ Henry James

I am writing about people who are alive in the city of New York during mid-20th-century America. And these people are like a character in a play or they are figures in a short story or a novel. ~ Gay Talese

I love the action stuff. Honestly, I like sci-fi and everything supernatural. ~ Meaghan Rath

Watching the lecture hall fill for a while longer, Rummings picked up the gun, rested the barrel on the parapet and waited expectantly. A senior mining executive walked up to a rostrum and began to talk to the waiting audience.
Rummings took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. A large hole appeared in the curtain glazing surrounding the building and the executive staggered sideways.
After pumping a few more bullets into the dying man's body, Rummings abandoned the rifle, ran back to the exit door, paused long enough to strip off the coveralls and then raced down the stairs. Once in the corridor, he deliberately slowed himself down, calmly called a lift and went down to the ground floor again. ~ Andrew R. Williams

I'd have you see the like this; I'd have you see them very well. Will you? They are clustered around Suzie's Cruisin Trike, embracing in the aftermath of their victory. I'd have you see them this way not because they have won a great battle - they know better than that, every one of them - but because now they are ka-tet for the last time. The story of their fellowship ends here, on this make-believe street and beneath this artificial sun; the rest of the tale will be short and brutal compared to all that's gone before. Because when ka-tet breaks, the end always comes quickly.
Say sorry. ~ Stephen King

It's the imagination that is involved in sci-fi, and fantasy is what draws me to it. Stories, everything. ~ Mark Sheppard

In general, short stories are less read than before, they're less published than before and, not surprisingly, they're less taught than before. ~ Lorin Stein

After running her eyes over pulsing LEDs on the suspension unit, Samantha glanced through a small port at Claire Hyndman's limp body. She looked expectantly at Mih Valanson, one of her senior technicians. "Well? How's it going? Are you succeeding?"
Valanson looked uncomfortable.
"Well?"
"I shouldn't be doing this. Brain-stripping is illegal."
"I do wish you wouldn't call it that," Samantha scolded.
After following Samantha's gaze and looking at Claire Hyndman's pale face, Valanson secretly hoped his efforts would be in vain. ~ Andrew R. Williams