Who said “What the hell is nostalgia doing in a science-fiction film? With the whole universe and…”?

Verified

Ursula K. Le Guin. A published source records them saying or writing it.

Source"Close Encounters, Star Wars, and the Tertium Quid" (1978)

Evidence: Wikiquote · How we check

Source checked · Something wrong? Report a correction

Authors A–Z
“What the hell is nostalgia doing in a science-fiction film? With the whole universe and all the future to play in, Lucas took his marvelous toys and crawled under the fringed cloth on the parlor table, back into a nice safe hide hole, along with Flash Gordon and the Cowardly Lion and Luke Skywalker and the Flying Aces and the Hitler Jugend. If there's a message there, I don't think I want to hear it.”
— Ursula K. Le Guin
Verified"Close Encounters, Star Wars, and the Tertium Quid" (1978) · evidenceScience Fiction

Cite this quote

For academic work, cite the original where you can: "Close Encounters, Star Wars, and the Tertium Quid" (1978).

APA

Guin, U. K. L. (n.d.). What the hell is nostalgia doing in a science-fiction film? With the whole universe and all the future to play in, Lucas took his marvelous toys and crawled under the fringed cloth on the parlor table, back into a nice safe hide hole, along with Flash Gordon and the Cowardly Lion and Luke Skywalker and the Flying Aces and the Hitler Jugend. If there's a message there, I don't think I want to hear it. [Quotation]. Famous Quotations Network. Retrieved October 24, 2026, from https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/36931-what-the-hell-is-nostalgia-doing-in-a/

MLA

Guin, Ursula K. Le. “What the hell is nostalgia doing in a science-fiction film? With the whole universe and all the future to play in, Lucas took his marvelous toys and crawled under the fringed cloth on the parlor table, back into a nice safe hide hole, along with Flash Gordon and the Cowardly Lion and Luke Skywalker and the Flying Aces and the Hitler Jugend. If there's a message there, I don't think I want to hear it.” Famous Quotations Network, https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/36931-what-the-hell-is-nostalgia-doing-in-a/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Guin, Ursula K. Le. “What the hell is nostalgia doing in a science-fiction film? With the whole universe and all the future to play in, Lucas took his marvelous toys and crawled under the fringed cloth on the parlor table, back into a nice safe hide hole, along with Flash Gordon and the Cowardly Lion and Luke Skywalker and the Flying Aces and the Hitler Jugend. If there's a message there, I don't think I want to hear it.” Famous Quotations Network. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/36931-what-the-hell-is-nostalgia-doing-in-a/.

Related quotes

“I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled ''Science Fiction'' and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal.”
— Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Verified"Science Fiction"; originally published in The New York Times Book Review, 5 September 1965 · evidenceDetails & citeScience Fiction
“Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can't talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful.”
— Philip K. Dick
Verified"How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" (1978) · evidenceDetails & citeScience Fiction

More quotes by Ursula K. Le Guin

“When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.”
VerifiedThe Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Chapter 3 “The Mad King” (p. 42) · evidenceDetails & citeInformation
“My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.”
Verified"The Creatures on My Mind" in Unlocking the Air and Other Stories (1996), p. 65 · evidenceDetails & citeImagination
“We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.”
Verified"Bryn Mawr Commencement Address" (1986) · evidenceDetails & citeWomen
“The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.”
Verified"Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?" (1987) · evidenceDetails & citeBooks and Reading
All 26 Ursula K. Le Guin quotes →