"On the most basic level, computers in my books are simply a metaphor for human memory: Im interested in the hows and whys of memory, the ways it defines who and what we are, in how easily memory is subject to revision. When I was writing Neuromancer, it was wonderful to be able to tie a lot of these interests into the computer metaphor. It wasnt until I could finally afford a computer of my own that I found out theres a drive mechanism inside — this little thing that spins around. Id been expecting an exotic crystalline thing, a cyberspace deck or something, and what I got was a little piece of a Victorian engine that made noises like a scratchy old record player. That noise took away some of the mystique for me; it made computers less sexy. My ignorance had allowed me to romanticize them."
William Ford Gibson is an American and Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk, a category from which he has repeatedly distanced himself. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his early works were noir, near-future stories that explored the effects of technology, cybernetics, and computer networks o
"“Surfing the Web” (as dubious a metaphor as “the information highway”) is, as a friend of mine has it, “like reading magazines with the pages stuck together.” My wife shakes her head in dismay as I patiently await the downloading of some Japanese Beatles fans personal catalog of bootlegs. “But it’s from Japan!” She isnt moved. She goes out to enjoy the flowers in her garden."
William Gibson"She swam through the submarine half-life of bottles and glassware and the slow swirl of cigarette smoke...she moved through her natural element, one bar after another."
William Gibson"They had better luck with the seashell. Exobiology suddenly found itself standing on unnervingly solid ground: one and seven-tenths grams of highly organized biological information, definitely extraterrestrial. Olgas seashell generated an entire subbranch of the science, devoted exclusively to the study of...Olgas seashell."
William Gibson"I think of religions as franchise operations. Like chicken franchise operations. But that doesnt mean theres no chicken, right?"
William Gibson"I became so frustrated with my inability to physically move the characters through the imaginary narrative space, that I actually developed an early form of imaginary VR technology that sort of covered my ass ... all they had to do was switch tapes and be in a different place, and I was spared the embarrassment of demonstrating that I didnt know how to get them up and down the stairs."
William Gibson"The NET is a waste of time, and thats exactly whats right about it."
William Gibson"By the same proportion that a penny saved is a penny gained, the preserver of books is a Mate for the Compiler of them."
"How many good books suffer neglect through the inefficiency of their beginnings!"
"Dazzled, jealous and angry ... I am convinced that (Lucas) has looked at my books!"
Star Wars"So Im well aware that there are certain people frustrated with the endings of my books. I can remember at the time I was writing it, I told a friend of mine that the climax of Snow Crash was now longer than Moby-Dick: Theres a helicopter that gets brought down; theres a private jet that blows up; some people die; theres confrontation and a girl goes home with her mom — so it seems like a good ending to me. [audience laughter] Once you write a book or two with controversial endings — and that meme gets going, of “Stephenson can’t write endings” — then that gets slapped on everything that you do no matter how elaborate the ending is. I think Anathem does OK on that score. Im sure that Ill be hearing from some of the “Stephenson can’t write endings” people, but I think that it has a decent enough ending."
"The crimson monads of the deep, The flying-fish with fitful leap, Assai palms of matchless grace, The giant in the vine’s embrace,— These were his books while journeying on To read the unknown Amazon."
"It was in one of those cinema books as one of the greatest screenplays ever written that had never been produced."
The Princess Bride (film)