John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential American science fiction editor and writer, known for his challenges to writers.
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- History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells, 'Can't you remember anything I told you?' and lets fly with a club.
- Statement in Analog Science Fiction/Fact magazine (1965)
- Of course, I never wrote the 'important' story, the sequel about the first amplified human. Once I tried something similar. John Campbell's letter of rejection began: 'Sorry - you can't write this story. Neither can anyone else.'"
- to Vernor Vinge, after Vinge proposed writing a story about the first human with hyper-amplified intelligence. (From Vinge's comments on "Bookworm, Run!" in The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge.)