Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during the Golden Age of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth25 November 1926
CityBristol, PA
CountryUnited States of America
My current project is science fiction, really ambitious I think. But again, it's a matter, to some extent, of what you can do, accepting limitations.
We live with our archetypes, but can we live in them?
In my considered opinion, the profit to be made by permanent settlement in space is nothing less than the survival of industrial civilization, and therefore the survival of nearly the entire human race, along with such amenities as peace, freedom, enough to eat, and the chance to reach a high age in good health.
So much American science fiction is parochial -- not as true now as it was years ago, but the assumption is one culture in the future, more or less like ours, and with the same ideals, the same notions of how to do things, just bigger and flashier technology. Well, you know darn well it doesn't work that way...
The single definition of government I've ever seen that makes sense is that it's the organization which claims the right to kill people who won't do what it wants.
What five books would I like to be remembered for? Well... Tau Zero, I like that one especially. It was somewhat of a tour de force, and I think it got across what I was trying for.
It is a truism that the structure of a society is basically determined by its technology. Not in an absolute sense-there may be totally different cultures using identical tools-but the tools settle the possibilities; you can't have interstellar trade without spaceships. A race limited to a single planet, possessing a high knowledge of mechanics but with its basic machines of industry and war requiring a large capital investment, will inevitably tend toward collectivism under one name or another. Free enterprise needs elbow room.
Give fear no hold on you. Keep sinews loose and senses open, ready at every instant to flow with the rush of action.
There are some ideas so stupid that only intellectuals can believe in them, particularly left-wing intellectuals.
Let us settle down to the serious business of getting drunk.
In Harvest of Stars, there is this notion, not original with me of course, that it will become possible to download at least the basic aspects of a human personality into a machine program
Anybody can find infinite Mandelbrot figures in his navel.
Will none wipe the sneer of the face of the cosmos?
Timidity can be as dangerous as rashness.