David Brin Quotes - Page 2

In the book, America had already been weakened by bio terror plagues before waves of selfish violence took down the rest. But the real enemy was the kind of male human being who nurses fantasies of violent glory at the expense of his fellow citizens.

Only a knowledgeable, empowered and vocal citizenry can perform well in democracy.

One of life's joys was to have friends who gave you reality checks...who would call you on your crap before it rose so high you drowned in it.

The best time to act on this was decades ago. The second best time is now.

Where subtlety fails us we must simply make do with cream pies.

My education and background thoroughly inform my writing

Reciprocal accountability, or criticism [is] the only known antidote to error.

Creative people see Prometheus in a mirror, never Pandora.

But it is a delightful challenge to try to depict interesting aliens.

Alas, criticism has always been what human beings, especially leaders, most hate to hear.

Ideologies are too seductive anyway. It does a man good to see things from a different point of view.

What point was there in pursuing an ever-elusive popularity?

With gritty action and realistic science, Peter Watts brings to life a dark and vivid world.

If you have other things in your life-family, friends, good productive day work-these can interact with your writing and the sum will be all the richer.

The village is coming back, like it or not.

In the end, the work of diplomats continues even while others fight. So, it's not necessarily true that everyone needs to march.

It's how creativity works. Especially in humans. For every good idea, ten thousand idiotic ones must first be posed, sifted, tried out, and discarded. A mind that's afraid to toy with the ridiculous will never come up with the brilliantly original.

Prison for the crime of puberty -- that was how secondary school had seemed.

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.

Many people have tried to define science fiction. I like to call it the literature of exploration and change. While other genres obsess upon so-called eternal verities, SF deals with the possibility that our children may have different problems. They may, indeed, be different than we have been.

Every marvel of our age arose out of the critical give and take of an open society. No other civilization ever managed to incorporate this crucial innovation, weaving it into daily life. And if you disagree with this... say so!

Self-awareness is probably overrated. A complex, self-regulating system doesn't need it in order to be successful, or even smart.

The fundamental premise of sci-fi is not spaceships and lasers - it's that children can learn from the mistakes of their parents.

If there are still honest-smart men and women within those old and noble traditions, they should think carefully, observe and diagnose the illness. They should face the contradiction. Discuss the conflation. And then do as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates and many others have done. Choose the miracle of creative competition over an idolatry of cash. They should stand up.

Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the Universe to make sense!