Quotes from Ben Bova

But let me tell you, it is better to be an outcast than a nothing. It is better to do what you must, to rid the world of evil, than to sit by comfortably and pretend that eradicating evil is someone else's responsibility.

Every writer must bring three major factors to each story that he writes. They are ideas, artistry and craftsmanship.

When we do this thing, we admit failure. We admit fear—yes, terror. We are terrified of a new idea, a new scientific discovery. The government of the world, the protectors of peace and stability, must stoop to exiling some of the world's finest minds. This is a horrible state of affairs. Truly

Fear has two components to it, Kirill. There's the intellectual awareness of something that might harm you. And there's the emotional, glandular reaction to that perception. I'm fully aware of the danger we're in. But it won't do us any good to let our glands dominate our brains, will it?

Science fiction stories are those in which some aspect of future science or high technology is so integral to the story that, if you take away the science or technology, the story collapses.

The term sci-fi, which most science fiction writers loathe, I will reserve for those motion pictures that claim to be science fiction but are actually based on comic strips. Or worse.

Population growing, swelling, bursting beyond the capability of the world to sustain so many human beings. Six billion people. Eight. Ten. Most of them starving, diseased, born in miserable poverty and dying in miserable poverty; surviving only long enough to make still more babies, half a million more each day.

Mollycoddle

Don't ask your readers to admire your words when you want them to believe your story.