“Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.”

Politicians should read history, the Bible, Black, Locke, the rest of the literature the founders read and wrote, and the instruments they place their seal to.

It depends on the sci-fi. Stories by Clarke himself, as a scientist, explorer, and author of "2001:A Space Odyssey", could be educational, but other fiction, such as Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes would be just as worthwhile. The quote has no validity.

Politicians should read nothing. They have too many ideas as it is.

What a brilliant statement, most if not all of our modern scientists started out as kids reading science fiction. It will give you a foundation in scientific concepts of all the sciences, social as well as political, economical and the hard sciences and biology as well. Supported by another great quote by Robert G. Ingersoll "We are indebted solely to science- the only lever capabel of raising mankind. Abject faith is barbarism; reason is civilization. To obey is slavish; to act from a sense of obligation perceived by the reason, is noble. Ignorance worships mystery; Reason explains it: the one grovels, the other soars."