I am an optimist. Anyone interested in the future has to be otherwise he would simply shoot himself. Arthur C. Clarke More Quotes by Arthur C. Clarke More Quotes From Arthur C. Clarke 'The Devil in the Dark' impressed me because it presented the idea, unusual in science fiction then and now, that something weird, and even dangerous, need not be malevolent. That is a lesson that many of today's politicians have yet to learn. Arthur C. Clarke feardarkideas The piece of equipment I'm most found off is my telescope. The other night I had a superb view of the moon. Arthur C. Clarke moonviewsnight Open the pod bay doors, Hal. Arthur C. Clarke great-yearmoviedoors Almost any seat was comfortable at one-sixth of a gravity. Arthur C. Clarke seatsgravitycomfortable The numbers of distinct human societies or nations, when our race is twice its present age, may be far greater than the total number of all the men who have ever lived up to the present time. Arthur C. Clarke racenumbersmen I've been saying for a long time that I'm hoping to find intelligent life in Washington. Arthur C. Clarke long-timeintelligentlong I sometimes wonder how we spent leisure time before satellite television and Internet came along…and then I realise that I have spent more than half of my life in the ‘dark ages’! Arthur C. Clarke darktimelife Though the man-apes often fought and wrestled one another, their disputes very seldom resulted in serious injuries. Having no claws or fighting canine teeth, and being well protected by hair, they could not inflict much harm on one another. In any event, they had little surplus energy for such unproductive behavior; snarling and threatening was a much more efficient way of asserting their points of view. Arthur C. Clarke fightinghairmen The time was fast approaching when Earth, like all mothers, must say farewell to her children. Arthur C. Clarke farewellmotherchildren The fact that we have not yet found the slightest evidence for life - much less intelligence - beyond this Earth does not surprise or disappoint me in the least. Our technology must still be laughably primitive, we may be like jungle savages listening for the throbbing of tom-toms while the ether around them carries more words per second than they could utter in a lifetime. Arthur C. Clarke technologylisteningdoe Can the synthesis of man and machine ever be stable, or will the purely organic component become such a hindrance that it has to be discarded? Arthur C. Clarke machinessynthesismen I don't think there is such a thing as as a real prophet. You can never predict the future. We know why now, of course; chaos theory, which I got very interested in, shows you can never predict the future. Arthur C. Clarke chaosrealthinking The success of a science fiction writer is if he can write a good read. Arthur C. Clarke science-fictionwriting I don't think there are any secrets to writing in the - everybody has their own techniques. You must be widely read, that's one thing, because you have to resolve a tremendous amount of background information. Also, you should know what the competition is writing, just so you're not wasting your time doing the same thing. Unless you do it better, of course. Arthur C. Clarke competitionwritingthinking In fact, one of the arguments for searching for intelligent life in space, elsewhere, is that we have no evidence that intelligence has any survival value. The most successful creatures on this planet are the cockroaches. They've been around, what is it, 100 million years or so and I suspect they'll still be there 100 million years in the future. Maybe intelligence is an evolutionary aberration which dooms its possessors in the way armor may have doomed some of the dinosaurs. Arthur C. Clarke survivalintelligentsuccessful Finding intelligent life would encourage people and also of course the opportunity of learning a tremendous amount, but this is a danger. We might be so overwhelmed with knowledge and information, that we might be depressed or even become suicidal - because what's the point if they're thousands of years ahead of us? Why should we bother? - or become the ultimate couch potatoes. Arthur C. Clarke suicidalintelligentopportunity A precondition for being a science fiction writer other than an interest in the future is that, an interest - at least an understanding of science, not necessarily a science degree but you must have a feeling for the science and its possibilities and its impossibilities, otherwise you're writing fantasy. Now, fantasy is also fine, but there is a distinction, although no one's ever been able to say just where the dividing lines come. Arthur C. Clarke understandingfeelingswriting To be a science fiction writer you must be interested in the future and you must feel that the future will be different and hopefully better than the present. Although I know that most - that many science fiction writings have been anti-utopias. And the reason for that is that it's much easier and more exciting to write about a really nasty future than a - placid, peaceful one. Arthur C. Clarke peacefuldifferentwriting I'm surprised at some technological development, and the realization that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I think the CD-ROM is the best example of that. The idea of having a whole symphony, or opera, or novel in a little piece of plastic is pretty amazing. Arthur C. Clarke magictechnologythinking The best proof that there's intelligent life in the universe is that it hasn't come here. Arthur C. Clarke intelligent-lifeuniverseintelligent
