The Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy

The Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy was founded in May 1996 in order to promote and augment the fields of Science Fiction and Fantasy in Israel, and has been continuously active ever since.

The Society's activities includes arranging science fiction and fantasy conventions, lectures, and premiere screenings of SF&F films. They also sponsor various story writing contests and writing workshops as well as present the annual Geffen Award to Israel's top speculative fiction writers.

The society also publishes a SF&F magazine called "The Tenth Dimension" and an online magazine; both are in Hebrew.
The society is a non-profit organization, and all its activities, as well as management, are performed by volunteers only.
There are currently about 500 members in the Society.

The Society's Goals

---

1.	Promote and encourage SF&F in Israel.
2.	Facilitate original SF&F writing, as well as other forms of original SF&F art.
3.	Encourage an increase of SF&F translations into Hebrew.
4.	Provide an overall framework for existing SF&F organizations, and help in the establishment of new ones.
5.	Organize activities, on regular or occasional basis, in various places in Israel, including conferences, workshops, lectures, film screening, open discussions and more.
6.	Maintain contacts with similar organizations abroad.
7.	Publish and support the publication of SF&F as well as popular science magazines.
8.	Promote the teaching of SF&F in schools, both as literature and as educational aid for science curricula.
9.	Cooperate with any agency, including mass media, interested in SF&F, and maintain contacts with agencies at the forefront of scientific research in Israel.
10.	Invite foreign SF&F writers to visit Israel.

Website and Contact Information

---

Visit the English section of the Society's website here

Visit the Hebrew site, which is far more detailed and includes the online magazine, here.
The Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy can be emailed at this address isfsfaf@gmail.com

The Gefen Awards

---

The Geffen Awards are presented by the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy, and are named after the late Amos Geffen, one of the first editors and translators of sci-fi in Israel. In many ways, Amos Geffen's work shaped the field of SF&F in Israel, and his influence is still indelible. The award is presented each year at the Israeli SF&F convention, known as ICon, and is voted on by the participants of the convention. The Geffen is usually awarded in four categories: Best translated SF book Best translated fantasy book Best original short story Best novel or short fiction collection (this category appears once every two years) The award's rules and constitution are available (in Hebrew) here.

---

2008 Geffen Award Winners

---

Best Translated Science Fiction Book:
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Yanshuf Publishing, translated by Yael Inbar

Best Translated Fantasy Book:
The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
Kidmat Eden Publishing, translated by Yonatan Bar

Best Translated YA or Children SF&F Book:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
Yediot books Publishing, translated by Gili Bar-Hillel Semo

Best Original Hebrew SF&F Short Story:
Where Books are Lost by Lili Daie
Published in Don't Panic! Online Magazine

Best Original Hebrew Book:
The Water Between the Worlds by Hagar Yanai
Keter Publishing

Best Translation of a SF&F book:
Gili Bar-Hillel Semo for translating the book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
Yediot books Publishing

---

2007 Geffen Award Winners

---

Best Translated Science Fiction Book:
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Translated by Raz Greenberg, Yanshuf Publishing

Best Translated Fantasy Book:
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Translated by Vered Tochterman, Yanshuf Publishing

Best Original Hebrew SF&F Short Story:
In the Mirror by Rotem Baruchin
The Tenth Dimension Magazine, issue 29

Best Original Hebrew Book:
The Whale of Babylon by Hagar YanaiKeter Publishing

---

2006 Geffen Award Winners

---

Best Translated Science Fiction Book:
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
Translated by Didi Chanoch, Graff Publishing

Best Translated Fantasy Book:
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Translated by Vered Tochterman, Opus Press

Best Original Hebrew SF&F Short Story:
East of Eden by Hagay Averbuch
The Israeli Society for SF&F Online Magazine

---

2005 Geffen Award Winners

---

Best Translated Science Fiction Book:
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Translated by Didi Chanoch, Yanshuf Publishing

Best Translated Fantasy Book:
Transformation by Carol Berg
Translated by Didi Chanoch, Graff Publishing

Best Original Hebrew SF&F Short Story:
The Perfect Girl by Guy Hasson
Dreams in Aspamia magazine, Translated by Vered Tochterman

Best Original Hebrew Book:
End's World by Ofir Touche Gafla
Keter Publishing

---

2004 Geffen Award Winners

---

Best translated science fiction book:
Warchild by Karin Lowachee
Translated by Inval Sagiv; Opus Press

Best translated fantasy book:
Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (Opus Press)
Translated by Yael Achmon; Opus Press

Best original SF/Fantasy short story:
Dragon Checkpoint by Rami Shalheveth
(The Tenth Dimension, issue 18)

---

2003 Geffen Award Winners

---

Best translated science fiction book:
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Aharon Hauptman; Keter publishing house

Best translated fantasy book:
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Translated by Rechavia Berman; Opus Press

Best original SF/Fantasy short story:
All-of-Me(TM) by Guy Hasson
Published in Dreams in Aspamia SF&F Magazine

Best original SF/Fantasy book:
Sometimes It's Different by Vered Tochterman
Opus Press

Reports of the 2003 Geffen Award: The Locus Report, The SFcrowsnest Report

---

2002 Geffen Award Winners

---

Best translated science fiction book:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Translated by Noa Manheim; Odyssey publishing house

Best translated fantasy book:
A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
Translated by David Chanoch; Opus Press

Best original SF/Fantasy short story:
Me and Grandma Go Shopping by Hamutal Levin
Published in Don't Panic! Online Magazine

---

2001 Geffen Award Winners

---

Best translated science fiction book:
Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
Translated by Rechavia Berman; Opus Press

Best translated fantasy book:
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
Translated by Vered Tochterman; Opus Press

---

2000 Geffen Award Winners

---

Best translated science fiction book:
Dune: House Atreides by Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson
Translated by Dorit Landes; Am Oved publishing house

Best translated fantasy book:
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Translated by Ornit Shachar; Opus Press

---

1999 Geffen Award Winners

---

Best translated science fiction book:
Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card
Translated by Rechavia Berman; Opus Press

Best translated fantasy book:
Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber

Second-Hand Bookstores in Israel

---

Jerusalem

Sefer VeSefel

Address: 2 Yabetz St., Jerusalem.
Located in the City Center in an alley off of Yaffo St, on one side and Ben Hillel St. on the other side.
Phone: 02-624-8237
Description: Sefer V'Sefel is the best known second-hand English bookstore in Jerusalem. They carry only books in English, most of which are second hand but there are some new books as well. They have a nice selection of books in most categories. The SFF section appears to be one of the more neglected sections in the store, with mostly older books, but these books are also some of the more expensive in the store.

Dani Books

Address: 57 Jaffa Street, Jerusalem
Off of Yaffo St., one block before King George intersection. The Hebrew section of Danny's Books is located on Yaffo and one door down, into the open square is the rest of second-hand store.
Phone: 02-623-1203
Description: Dani Books carries second-hand books in English, Hebrew and French. Their biggest section is probably romance novels. While their used SFF section is pretty paltry they have been adding a lot of new SFF books and have a pretty impressive selection, compared to any other stores that I have seen. It is also worthwhile to peruse their discounted section as I have found some pretty good books there for only 10 NIS.

Moffit

Address: This store has two locations, one is on the side of Binyan Clal across from the Mahane Yehuda Shuk. The other is on the lower level of Binyan Clal right at the southern entrance on Rechov Yaffo. It's above the Bank Hapoalim on King George St.
Description: Both stores are entirely of second-hand books but the one by King George St. has a larger selection of English books. They only have two shelves of SFF books but they have plenty of novels, particularly mysteries.

Stein Books

Address: 52 King George St, Jerusalem
Phone: 02-624-7877
Description: According to Frommer's, this store is is well-known for Jewish studies and rare books.

The Book Gallery

Address: 6 Schatz St. (26 King George St.)
Located in a pedestrian square off of King George St.
Phone: 02-623-1087
Description: The Book Gallery offers a large selection of books in a variety of languages, and provides a cozy setting in which to browse. While the entrance to the store is small and crowded, the downstairs opens up to to a large room lined with bookshelves and containing a few overstuffed couches. A couple of other rooms branch off to the sides, each of which are overflowing with books. The SFF section here is small but still contains some good find, reasonably priced. There is a rack of older, classic SciFi, in which most books are around 15 NIS.

Old City Bookstore

( I don't know the real name)
Address: HaYeHudim St. Right by the parking lot, across from the small food market.
Phone:
Description: This little-known bookstore is one of my favorite finds. Although relatively small, every time I stop by I find at least a few great books. And the prices here are cheaper then any other bookstore I have been to in Israel.

Book Mark

Address: Bak’a | 1 Esther Hamalka St., corner 33 Bethlehem Rd; between Derech Hevron and Derekh Bet Lehem;
Phone: 02-673-1934
Description New and used books in English, Hebrew, French, German and Spanish.
Website: www.jlmbookmark.co.il

Tel Aviv

Betta Books

Address:131 Eben Gvirol street
Phone: 03-5462990
Description: This store has been around for 23 years and has a wide variety of new and used books in English.

---

Bibliophile

Address: 87 Allenby St.
Phone: 03-629-9710

---

Books at Basel

Address:32 Basel Street
Description: Book shop with sophisticated and intellectual atmosphere. Mostly books in Hebrew but alsosome classics and quality books in English. Specializing in Psychology Philosophy and Design.

---

Book Junky

Address: 167 Dizengoff Street
Phone: 03-527-2050
Description: A used books shopwith mostly Hebrew & English books but also German,French, Hungarian, Polish and Russian.

---

Halper's Books

Address: 87 Allenby St.
Phone: (03) 629-9710
Description: A second-hand bookshop with a large selection and an emphasis on fiction.

---

Kidmat Eden

Address: 91 Dizengoff Street (near Dizengoff Square)
Phone: 03-527-9275
Description: This store sell used books and cds and specialized in Science Fiction and Fantasy books.

---

Landsberger

Address: 116 Ben Yehuda street
Phone: 03-527-1395
Description:One of the first bookshops in Tel-Aviv, here you will find new and used books in English and Hebrew.

---

Netanya

The Reader's Corner

Address: 30 Shmuel Ha-Natziv, 42123
Phone: 09-8345767
Description: Used and new books in English with a good selection of SFF books.
Hours: Open Sun, Mon, Wed, Thu 8:30AM-1PM, 4PM-7PM; Tue 8:30AM-1PM, Fri 8:30AM-2PM.

---

Raanana

Yanshuf

Address: 2 Chankin St.
Phone: 077-560-0434
Description: A second hand bookstore with a wide selection of books in English, as well as many other languages. They also carry games and gaming accessories.

---

Quotes from SFF Authors

---

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

Douglas Adams

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

Douglas Adams

The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.

Douglas Adams

I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die.

Isaac Asimov

Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.

Isaac Asimov

I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.

Isaac Asimov

Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken.

Orson Scott Card

I don't believe that there are aliens. I believe there are really different people.

Orson Scott Card

My favorite all-time work of fiction: Lord of the Rings. My favorite all-time nonfiction book: Guns, Germs, and Steel. Ask me again next week, you'll get a different answer.

Orson Scott Card

 

I always try to have strong opinions on frivolous subjects and weak opinions on serious matters. Keeps me young and irreverent.

Gail Carriger

The beginning of a second book is a difficult point for a new novelist. You have your whole life to write your first novel; for your second, you have a year.

Blake Charlton

Growing up, I didn't have a lot of toys, and personal entertainment depended on individual ingenuity and imagination - think up a story and go live it for an afternoon.

Terry Brooks

I want to kick-start your imagination and let you discover the places it can take you.

Terry Brooks

The unfortunate thing about working for yourself is that you have the worst boss in the world. I work every day of the year except at Christmas, when I work a half day.

David Eddings

Call it my little gesture toward social conscience, but I like to think I`m teaching a certain number of people to read. Now that sounds pretentious!

David Eddings

American Gods is about 200,000 words long, and I'm sure there are words that are simply in there 'cause I like them. I know I couldn't justify each and every one of them.

Neil Gaiman

Great, big, serious novels always get awards. If it's a battle between a great, big, serious novel and a funny novel, the funny novel is doomed.

Neil Gaiman

Life - and I don't suppose I'm the first to make this comparison - is a disease: sexually transmitted, and invariably fatal.

Neil Gaiman

This is a work of fiction. All the characters in it, human and otherwise, are imaginary, excepting only certain of the fairy folk, whom it might be unwise to offend by casting doubts on their existence. Or lack thereof.

Neil Gaiman

I've always liked the idea of a special Hugo to be awarded (by force, perhaps) to literary authors who
write books dripping with themes filleted from mainstream SF and then deny that it's science fiction
'because it's not about robots and spaceships'.

Terry Pratchett

There are no inconsistencies in the Discworld books; occasionally, however, there are alternate pasts.

Terry Pratchett

In ancient times cats were worshiped as gods; they have not forgotten this.

Terry Pratchett

However, you do need rules. Driving on the left (or the right or, in
parts of Europe, on the left and the right as the mood takes you) is a rule which works, since following it means you're more likely to reach your intended rather than your final destination.

Terry Pratchett

"You see, that is the sad, sorry, terrible thing about sarcasm. It's really funny.

Brandon Sanderson

You seem to think that the only genuine existence evil can have is conscious existence - that no one is evil unless he admits it to himself. I disagree.

Gene Wolf

The only thing that would bother me, is if anyone were to be forced to read something I had written.

Roger Zelazny

Don't wake me for the end of the world unless it has very good special effects

Roger Zelazny

Quotes from Books

---

So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land!

J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan

No villain comes in black, screaming obscenities. All evil has children, homes, regard for self, fear of enemies.

Greg Bear, Anvil of Stars

Cynical? 'Cynic' is a word invented by optimists to criticize realists.

Gregory Benford, In the Ocean of Night

Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore.

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

 

I'd made the vampire cry. Great. I felt like a real superhero. Harry Dresden, breaker of monsters' hearts.

Jim Butcher, Storm Front

"They do you a great honor. In Krasia, if no one is trying to kill you, it is because you're not worth killing." - Abban

Peter Brett, The Desert Spear

Honor is not diminished for being shared.

Lois McMaster Bujold, Shards of Honor

People are the only mirror we have to see ourselves in. The domain of all meaning. All virtue, all evil, are contained only in people. There is none in the universe at large. Solitary confinement is a punishment in every human culture

Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.

Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign

Mornings are wonderful! The only drawback is that they come at such an inconvenient time of day!

Glen Cook, Sweet Silver Blues

This is the way the world ends; not with a bang, but a whimper.

T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men

"If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher. Overlong, detailed to the point of distraction-and ultimately, without a major resolution."

Jasper Fforde, Something Rotten

"I would so hate to be a first-person character! Always on your guard, always having people reading your thoughts! Here we do what we are told but think what we wish. It is a much happier circumstance, believe me!"
(Marianne, from Sense and Sensibilities, expressing sympathy for Jane Eyre)

Jasper Fforde, Lost in a Good Book

"If you hear me screaming, run away."
"You never scream, Sam," corrected the Barigan...Sam smiled
"That's why you'd run away."

Eve Forward, Villains by Necessity

If Sam were a hero, tracking down a villain, he would, at this point, have said a few choice dramatic words along the lines of Mizzamir being his now, or perhaps a suggestion for the mage to make preparation to meet whatever deities he favored. But as it was, Sam was a villain and didn't mess about with such things.

Eve Forward, Villains by Necessity

"It would be nice just to slip in there and set a few things ablaze," said Valerie wistfully. " I bet all that dry wood would go up like a--"
"Save the world first, my fellows, and you can come back to enjoy it later," interrupted Kaylana.

Eve Forward, Villains by Necessity 

Have you ever had one of those days when something just seems to be trying to tell you somebody?

Neil Gaiman, Sandman

All Bette's stories have happy endings. That's because she knows where to stop. She's realized the real problem with stories -- if you keep them going long enough, they always end in death.

Neil Gaiman, Sandman

I will be a wise and tolerant monarch, dispensing justice fairly, and only setting nightmares to rip out the minds of the evil and wicked. Or just anybody I don't like.

Neil Gaiman, Sandman

Wizard's First Rule: People can be made to believe any lie, either because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it's true.
Wizard's Second Rule: The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.
Wizard's Third Rule: Passion rules reason.
Wizard's Fourth Rule: There is Magic to heal. In the forgiveness you grant, and more so in the forgiveness you receive.
Wizard's Fifth Rule: Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie.
Wizard's Sixth Rule: The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason.
Wizard's Seventh Rule: Life is the future, not the past.

Terry Goodkind, Sword of Truth

Knowledge is a weapon. I intend to be formidably armed.

Terry Goodkind, Sword of Truth

A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.

Frank Herbert, Dune

Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain you cannot see the mountain.

Frank Herbert, Dune

Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place.
Frank Herbert, Dune

Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.

Frank Herbert, Dune

Duty is heavier than a mountain, Death is lighter than a feather.

Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time

"I'd lay even odds that between the people following us and the people hunting us, we've become this city's principle means of employment."

Scott Lynch, Red Seas Under Red Skies

"You're ten pints of crazy in a one-pint glass"

Scott Lynch, Red Seas Under Red Skies

'This is where you and I are headed.... Look for us in history books and you'll find us in the margins. Look for us in legends and you might just find us celebrated.' (Jean to Locke)

Scott Lynch, Red Seas Under Red Skies

"Has anyone ever tried to cut out that disgustingly silver tongue of yours, Master Kosta?'"
"It's become a traditional pastime in several cities I could mention."
(Madam Durenna to Lock Lamora (posing as Master Kosta)

Scott Lynch, Red Seas Under Red Skies

Your hair looks like a haystack, but I like it.

Stephanie Meyer, Twilight (Edward Cullen)

I promise to love you forever - every single day of forever.

Stephanie Meyer, Twilight (Edward Cullen)

I know about people who talk about suffering for the common good. It's never bloody them! When you hear a man shouting "Forward, brave comrades!" you'll see he's the one behind the bloody big rock and the wearing the only really arrow-proof helmet!"

Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times

Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out til too late that he's been playing with two queens all along.

Terry Pratchett

All tapes left in a car for more than about a fortnight metamorphose into Best of Queen albums.

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

Aziraphale collected books. If he were totally honest with himself he would have to have admitted that his bookshop was simply somewhere to store them. He was not unusual in this. In order to maintain his cover as a typical second-hand book seller, he used every means short of actual physical violence to prevent customers from making a purchase. Unpleasant damp smells, glowering looks, erratic opening hours - he was incredibly good at it.

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

 

Well, he's going to America, isn't he? Don't see how you could have anythin' better than going to America. They've got thirty-nine flavors of ice cream there. Maybe even more.

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.

Terry Pratchett, Discworld

She'd become a governess. It was one of the few jobs a known lady could do. And she'd taken to it well. She'd sworn that if she did indeed ever find herself dancing on rooftops with chimney sweeps she'd beat herself to death with her own umbrella.

Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

"You're dead," he said. Keli waited. She couldn't think of any suitable reply. "I'm not" lacked a certain style, while "Is it serious?" seemed somehow too frivolous.
-- Mort to Princess Keli, after her death

Terry Pratchett, Mort

"While I'm still confused and uncertain, it's on a much higher plane, d'you see, and at least I know I'm bewildered about the really fundamental and important facts of the universe." 

Treatle nodded. "I hadn't looked at it like that," he said, "But you're absolutely right. He's really pushed back the boundaries of ignorance."

Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

They both savored the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary things.

Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always . All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.

Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

To deem us simply enemies is to lose the true flavor of our relationship. It was more like the two of us entered into a business partnership in order to more efficiently pursue our mutual interest of hating each other.

Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

Call a jack a jack, call a spade a spade, but always call a whore a lady.

Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.

Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

It does not do to dwell on dreams, and forget to live.

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.

J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.

J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Let the snow fall deep, the rain drive down, and the wind buffet my cloak. I care not for I've a road worth walking!

R.A. Salvatore, The Thousand Orcs

No, I would not want to live in a world without dragons, as I would not want to live in a world without magic, for that is a world without mystery, and that is a world without faith. And that, I fear, for any reasoning, conscious being, would be the cruelest trick of all.

R.A. Salvatore, Streams of Silver (Forgotten Realms)

People can do great things. However, there are some things they just CAN'T do. I, for instance, have not been able to transform myself into a Popsicle, despite years of effort.

Brandon Sanderson, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

My behavior is nonetheless, deplorable. Unfortunately, I'm quite prone to such bouts of deplorability--take for instance, my fondness for reading books at the dinner table.
- Kelsier

Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn: The Final Empire

If you're always on time, it implies that you never have anything better you should be doing.

Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn: The Final Empire

It's easy to believe in something when you win all the time...The losses are what define a man's faith.

Brandon Sanderson,  The Well of Ascension

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

Dr Seuss

Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you, half as well as you deserve.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

All that is gold does not glitter, not all who wander are lost, the old that are strong do not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring, renewed shall be blade that is broken, the crownless again shall be king.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Religion and science have always been matters of faith in something. It is the same something.

Gene Wolfe, Citadel of the Autarch

'You think whatever is wrong with you is contagious, then?'
She laughed again. 'Yes, but you have it already. You caught it from your mother. Death.

Gene Wolfe, Sword & Citadel

History is on the move. Those who cannot keep up with it will be left behind to watch from a distance.

Timothy Zahn, Star Wars: The Last Command

Eric was killing us by inches and hours.

Roger Zelazny, Amber

Quotes about Fantasy

---

Fantasy is the only canvas large enough for me to paint on.

Terry Brooks

Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.

Francisco de Goya

Fantasy allows you bend the world and the situation to more clearly focus on the moral aspects of what's happening. In fantasy you can distill life down to the essence of your story.

Terry Goodkind

Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are also dress rehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination.

Barbara-Grizzuti-Harrison

Fantasy for me as a kid was real, and I had a fantasy about what life was, whether it was sort of wicked and dire, or wholly normal, or whatever. Anything really close to home is not, it seems to me, what a good book should be about.

Diana Wynne Jones

All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination.

Carl Jung

But in fantasy, you can make a complete break, and you can put people in a situation where they are confronted with things that they would not confront in the real world.

Elizabeth Moon

Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.

Terry Pratchett

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities.

Dr. Seuss

Science Fiction quotes

---

Science fiction reflects scientific thought; a fiction of things-to-come based on things-on-hand.

Benjamin Appel

Modern science fiction is the only form of literature that consistently considers the nature of the changes that face us, the possible consequences, and the possible solutions.

Isaac Asimov

Science fiction is a controlled way to think and dream about the future. An integration of the mood and attitude of science (the objective universe) with the fears and hopes that spring from the unconscious. Anything that turns you and your social context, the social you, inside out. Nightmares and visions, always outlined by the barely possible.

Gregory Benford

Science fiction is really sociological studies of the future, things that the writer believes are going to happen by putting two and two together.

Ray Bradbury

Science Fiction: fiction based on rational speculation regarding the human experience of science and its resultant technologies.

Reginald Bretnor

Science Fiction is a subdivision of fantastic literature which employs science or rationalism to create an appearance of plausibility.

Paul Brians

Change is the principal feature of our age and literature should explore how people deal with it. The best science fiction does that, head-on.

David Brin

At its best, science fiction is the medium in which our miserable certainty that tomorrow will be different from today in ways we cant predict, can be transmuted to a sense of excitement and anticipation, occasionally evolving into awe. Poised between intransigent skepticism and uncritical credulity, it is par excellence the literature of the open mind.

John Brunner

Science Fiction is literature about the future, telling stories of the marvels we hope to see--or for our descendants to see--tomorrow, in the next century, or in the limitless duration of time

Terry Carr

The major distinction between fantasy and science fiction is, simply, that science fiction uses one, or a very, very few new postulates, and develops the rigidly consistent logical consequences of these limited postulates. Fantasy makes its rules as it goes along...The basic nature of fantasy is "The only rule is, make up a new rule any time you need one!" The basic rule of science fiction is "Set up a basic proposition--then develop its consistent, logical consequences."

John W. Campbell, Jr.

Therefore, no matter how the world makes out in the next few centuries, a large class of readers at least will not be too surprised at anything. They will have been through it all before in fictional form, and will not be too paralyzed with astonishment to try to cope with contingencies as they arise.

L. Sprague De Camp

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.

James E. Gunn

Science Fiction is what we point at when we say it.

Damon Knight

The reality of science is that it takes 40 years to get to Jupiter, and that's a dull show.

Glen Morgan (producer of sci-fi series "Space: Above and Beyond")

The future depicted in a good SF story ought to be in fact possible, or at least plausible. That means that the writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true...and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you.

Frederik Pohl

A work belongs in the genre of science fiction if its narrative world is at least somewhat different from our own, and if that difference is apparent against the background of an organized body of knowledge.

Eric S. Rabkin

For me, science fiction is a way of thinking, a way of logic that bypasses a lot of nonsense. It allows people to look directly at important subjects.

Gene Roddenberry (Creator of Star Trek)

What is authentic about genuine science fiction, is that the science fiction writer should not stop with just saying: Well, the plot needs this to happen, therefore I'll just do it and I'll invent an excuse for it being able to be done. Proper science fiction ought to require people to begin to explore the consequences of what they've invented. And thus, I think that science fiction is, in a real sense, capable of being scientific. Not in the sense that it can foresee the future of science, but it can adopt a kind of variation of the scientific method itself, it does feel compelled to explore the consequences of hypotheses and the way things fit together.

Brian Stableford

A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content.

Theodore Sturgeon

The difference is that in fantasy, you write about things you believe to be impossible, while in science fiction you write about stuff that hasn't been disproved. Everything else is window-dressing.

Lawrence Watt-Evans