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4a5e0e9
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Red tape has killed more people than bullets...
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Ben Bova |
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d8e804b
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A fanatic who is willing to die for his cause thinks nothing of killing you for his cause.
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Ben Bova |
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cd2859f
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The Old Ones knew that life is not rare, but precious; not fragile, but vulnerable. Life is as deep as the seas in which it was born, as strong as the mountains that give it shelter, as universal as the stars themselves.
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Ben Bova |
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e38637b
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The art of fiction has not changed much since prehistoric times. The formula for telling a powerful story has remained the same: create a strong character, a person of great strengths, capable of deep emotions and decisive action. Give him a weakness. Set him in conflict with another powerful character -- or perhaps with nature. Let his exterior conflict be the mirror of the protagonist's own interior conflict, the clash of his desires, his..
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role-of-the-writer
science-fiction
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Ben Bova |
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ea56e9d
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As long as we're tied to Middle Eastern oil we're tied to Middle Eastern politics. We're hostages to the terrorists and nutcases who want to wipe out Israel and the United States because we support Israel.
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politics
national-autonomy
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Ben Bova |
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02f6692
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We try to teach our students how to think... how to use their brains and imagination. Individual subjects can always be learned by a man who knows how to learn. We teach them to think, and the other subjects arise by themselves...
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Ben Bova |
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0eb2180
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Lolling around libraries paging through books that haven't been checked out since 1975 is one of my principal joys as a writer.
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Ben Bova |
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9594ce2
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There are more than three hundred trillion cells in the human body. Counting ten cells per second, it would take more than a million years to count them all.
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Ben Bova |
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61df714
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Hard SF is the literature of change, the genre that examines the implications--both beneficial and dangerous--of new sciences and technologies.
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Ben Bova |
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e8d9376
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Every writer must bring three major factors to each story that he writes. They are ideas, artistry and craftsmanship.
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Ben Bova |
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2913e17
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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
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Ben Bova |
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e42b240
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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?
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Ben Bova |
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aa03a19
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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.
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Ben Bova |
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5ddf54d
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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.
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Ben Bova |
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53068d2
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The first thing he thinks of is weaponry, killing his fellow humans. The second thing is power.
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Ben Bova |
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fe170f7
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The only thing he thinks of is himself, Stoner pointed out. In his deepest heart he does not regard anyone else as truly human; no one except himself. He is the center of his world. Everything and everyone else revolves around him.
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Ben Bova |
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bc30783
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You can't hate a man you understand.
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Ben Bova |
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0d3cddf
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The most arduous part of learning is preparing the mind to accept new knowledge.
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mind
learning
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Ben Bova |
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f79c9fb
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And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand.
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Ben Bova |
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0bd0228
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So I started to wonder if I actually could reenter the unicorn's world...at which point Sooz came into my head and the story just happened. It flowed. It was the exact opposite of my experience writing The Last Unicorn. I locked onto her voice, the voice of this nine-and-a-half-year-old girl who was telling the story from the first sentence, and I just followed her. It was one of the very rare occasions where I felt from beginning to end th..
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Ben Bova |
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dbf9330
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Do you really think that you're some sort of superior creature? Do you think that your ability to make money, to steal and lie and murder, places you above normal men?
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Ben Bova |
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e93bef8
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Isaac Newton had discovered that for every action there is an opposite reaction. Popular wisdom declared that every dark cloud has a silver lining.
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Ben Bova |
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eb20584
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suffice it to say that after accidently setting the Walden woods ablaze--some estimates hold that more than three hundred acres were consumed--our First Naturalist repaired to the top of Fair Haven Hill to admire his own private conflagration. I thought folks ought to know about this. You see, as a student I was force-fed Walden and much of it disagreed with me. I will admit that never has the Luddite point of view been advanced quite so el..
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Ben Bova |
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5f0550f
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If the world should stop revolving, spinning slowly down to dust "I'd spend the end with you, "And when the world was through "Then one by one the stars would all go out, "Then you and I would simply fly away."
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Ben Bova |
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1b115e9
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Krishna: "The wise grieve not for those who live; and they grieve not for those who die--for life and death shall pass away."
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Ben Bova |
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a171401
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A test. Other races on other worlds have tried it and failed. Wiped themselves out. Overpopulated to the point of total ecological collapse. Destroyed themselves in wars. We've got to make sure that the human race discovers nanotechnology in the right way and develops it wisely, usefully. Not for power. Not for weapons. Humanely. Then we'll be ready to meet the other races that have succeeded, that have passed this test and become truly int..
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Ben Bova |
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c7617dc
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You must love your neighbor as yourself, and you must love yourself as you love your God. Otherwise you get bureaucrats and swindlers and opinion polls and computer-generated graphs in place of helping the needy. Cold impersonal bureaucracies do not solve problems.
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Ben Bova |
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dd2186f
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reired but he still runs Selene, the power behind the throne. He ifts an eyebrow and everybody hops to do what he wants." As they walked through the lush shrubbery and trees that filled he grotto, Verwoerd said, "I wonder what it is that he wants now?" Humphries threw a sour glance at her. "That's what I pay you o find out." The cocktail reception was out in the open, under the dome of he Grand Plaza next to the amphitheater that housed all..
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Ben Bova |
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bdd4d18
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It should be for you a sacred day when one of your people dies. You must then keep his soul as I shall teach you...for if this soul is kept, it will increase in you your concern and love for your neighbor.
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Ben Bova |
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e390302
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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.
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Ben Bova |
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882d98d
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He's so doggone narrow-minded he could look through a keyhole with both eyes.
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Ben Bova |