Gernsback Quotes

#1. Hugo Gernsback invented pulp magazines and the grandfather paradox. Not bad for a charlatan.

James Gleick

#2. The Thirties dreamed white marble and slip-stream chrome, immortal crystal and burnished bronze, but the rockets on the covers of the Gernsback pulps had fallen on London in the dead of night, screaming.

William Gibson

#3. If God were good, why would he create Rush Limbaugh?

Sherman Alexie

#4. I can't live without activity; I can't be sedentary.

Ferran Adria

#5. What description of clouds and sunsets was to the old novelist, description of scientific apparatus and methods is to the modern Scientific Detective writer.

Hugo Gernsback

#6. When you expect happiness, you live happily. You also live happily when you choose to be happy. Expect less, choose more.

Robert J. Braathe

#7. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.

James Madison

#8. Science fiction is anything published as science fiction.

Norman Spinrad

#9. Let it be understood, in the first place, that a science fiction story must be an exposition of a scientific theme and it must be also a story.

Hugo Gernsback

#10. My childhood was surrounded by trouble, illness, and my dad's alcoholism, but as I said, we just didn't have the time to be impressed by all those misfortunes. I have an idea that the Irish possess a built-in don't-give-a-damn that helps them through all the stress.

James Cagney

#11. I started the movement of SF in America in 1908 through my first magazine, 'MODERN ELECTRICS.' At that time it was an experiment. Science fiction authors were scarce. There were not a dozen worth mentioning in the entire world

Hugo Gernsback

#12. New carpet will exude poisonous formaldehyde for up to two years after it'd been laid. I know the feeling.

Chuck Palahniuk

#13. I'm always intrigued when you are travelling through a place and there is somebody who has lived there and done the same job for years.

Mathieu Amalric

#14. By 'scientifiction' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Edgar Allan Poe type of story-a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision

Hugo Gernsback

#15. Science-fiction ... can be defined as: Imaginative extrapolation of true natural phenomena, existing now, or likely to exist in the future.

Hugo Gernsback