“If our shallow, self-critical culture sometimes seems to lack a sense of the numinous or spiritual it's only in the same way a fish lacks a sense of the ocean.”

“If this book has made any point clear, I hope it's that things don't have to be real to be true. Or vice versa.”

“I just wanted all the wars to be over so that we could spend the money on starships and Mars colonies.”

“Writers and artists build by hand little worlds that they hope might effect change in real minds, in the real world where stories are read. A story can make us cry and laugh, break our hearts, or m...”

“We tell our children they're trapped like rats on a doomed, bankrupt, gangster-haunted planet with dwindling resources, with nothing to look forward to but rising sea levels and imminent mass extin...”

“The interior of our skulls contains a portal to infinity.”

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old”

“I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.”

“Each voice carries a portion of value, no matter how unpalatable or distasteful that voice may be: no one person, government, ideology, transnational, or religious institution can own and dominate ...”

“I really wasn't even aware that Batman and Superman had this kind of grudging friendship.”