Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible.
DefinitionFantasyGenreImaginationLogicScience fictionStorytelling
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Fantasy uses impossible things to make them seem likely, while science fiction makes unlikely things seem plausible through logic.
- In plain terms
- Fantasy makes the impossible seem real; sci-fi makes the unlikely seem possible.
- What can you take from it?
- Use logic to ground imaginative ideas.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you distinguish between fantasy and sci-fi?
- What makes an idea probable?
Another view
The distinction between fantasy and sci-fi is often blurred in modern literature.
More from Rod Serling
Every writer is a frustrated actor who recites his lines in the hidden auditorium of his skull.
Permalink to quote #9 I don't believe in reincarnation. That's a cop-out... I anticipate death will be a totally unconscious void in which you float through eternity with no particu…
Permalink to quote #11 Creativity is an altogether personal thing. It's an art that cannot be taught normally. It's a demanding, frustrating, challenge facet of the human experience.…
Permalink to quote #8
Related quotes
Science-fiction balances you on the cliff. Fantasy shoves you off.
Ray BradburyRay Bradbury quote #20 Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories…
L. Frank BaumL. Frank Baum quote #17 Undoubtedly the stories about them [hard-boiled detectives] had a fantastic element. Such things happened, but not so rapidly, nor to so close-knit a group of …
Raymond ChandlerRaymond Chandler quote #24