"I thought it must be pure science fiction. But when I checked it out I found a lot of magazine articles that actually supported the theory behind the book which was incredible. That's when I decided to acquire the rights of the book and everything went from there"
About this Quote
The subtext is about permission. Emmerich isn’t claiming to be a scientist; he’s narrating the moment he got license to treat a concept as culturally legible. Those articles function like a hall pass from reality, allowing an expensive fantasy to market itself as “what if?” rather than “no way.” It’s also a quiet reminder of how modern belief gets built: not through mastery, but through aggregation - you “check it out,” you find supporting fragments, and suddenly the idea becomes a project.
Contextually, this is auteur-as-producer talk: the pivot from inspiration to ownership. “Acquire the rights” is the real reveal. The miracle isn’t that the theory might be true; it’s that the intellectual property can be secured, packaged, and scaled. The sentence ends with momentum - “everything went from there” - a neat encapsulation of Emmerich’s cinema itself, where plausibility is the ignition and escalation is the point.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Emmerich, Roland. (2026, January 16). I thought it must be pure science fiction. But when I checked it out I found a lot of magazine articles that actually supported the theory behind the book which was incredible. That's when I decided to acquire the rights of the book and everything went from there. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-thought-it-must-be-pure-science-fiction-but-135296/
Chicago Style
Emmerich, Roland. "I thought it must be pure science fiction. But when I checked it out I found a lot of magazine articles that actually supported the theory behind the book which was incredible. That's when I decided to acquire the rights of the book and everything went from there." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-thought-it-must-be-pure-science-fiction-but-135296/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I thought it must be pure science fiction. But when I checked it out I found a lot of magazine articles that actually supported the theory behind the book which was incredible. That's when I decided to acquire the rights of the book and everything went from there." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-thought-it-must-be-pure-science-fiction-but-135296/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.



