Society Quotes

Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There’s something wrong with a society that drives a car to work out in a gym.

Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too. (“The Outsiders’)

By my own definition, SF is the branch of literature which deals with the response of human beings to changes in the level of science and technology. Over the past two centuries, we have watched our society grow more and more machine made, so to speak; and I assume that in one of our possible […]

I think societal collapse is in the air — or it smells like it — and, without being pretentious, that’s why hopefully movies matter, because that’s the role of the artist … to shine a light on what’s going on.

I think we’re we’re in a transition period of trying to find out how to make new kinds of human relations. For instance, if you take the movement from the country to the city, people when they left the country are leaving several things; they’re leaving because there’s no more work there because of technology, […]

To me, life is a pet peeve. Nothing makes sense. Do you realize that everyone has to have a brilliant child in this society? Have you ever met anybody who has a stupid kid? Or have you ever met anyone who said, “I have an ugly grandchild”? I would like just once to have a […]

Every time a superior person who has position invades the rights and liberties and the dignity of an inferior person, he degrades himself, he retards and debases his own manhood when he does it.

I am absolutely a victim to all of the societal objectification and exploitations that women are subjected to. I have bought into all of them myself at certain times.

I never truly felt comfortable living in America. I know that sounds odd because I am American but we lived in Italy for a year when I was a kid and in many ways, I felt more comfortable in Europe. America’s very uptight and it’s getting uptighter.

I draw on the social sciences a great deal. I get a lot of ideas from them, particularly from anthropology. When I create another planet, another world, with a society on it, I try to hint at the complexity of the society I’m creating, instead of just referring to an empire or something like that.