Fantasy Authors

"No one wants to think they are the cause of their own misery."

"Survival is worthless without meaning."

"“I’m too drunk to handle this right now. I’m going to need you to be the adult in the room tonight.” “Asshole, I’m drunk too.” “Yeah, but you’re better at it than I am.”"

"For as long as humankind can remember, it has wanted two things: to play God and to breathe life into the objects around them. And for thousands of years, humans created machines to approximate life and magic and all the things men and women could not do. And then a man stood in front of a roomful of people and had a computer say, “Hello.” That’s it. Hello. It didn’t mean it. It didn’t know what it was saying. But it said it. Hello. And within thirty years, humans were having conversations with their phones."

"This must be a field day for the end-is-nigh, compound-dwelling, bullets-and-Bibles folk. They must feel so vindicated. If there was any comfort to find at the end of the world, it was knowing you were right all along and that was about it."

"This was not a time of civility or compassion, but of survival."

"“We have to help them,” said Ezra. “I don’t think we can.” “You have a plasma gun and you’re smart. What else do you need?”"

"I learned long ago that, when anyone spoke of peace, be it man or machine, they meant war. Peace through war. Peace was the standard. It was the inert state of all things. You didn’t need to expend energy for peace. Only war."

"“Let me ask you something.” “Okay!” “Are we good guys or are we bad guys?” “We’re good guys.” “Well, good guys only do terrible things when our lives depend on it. And we have to feel bad about them afterward.” “Why?” “Because otherwise, we become the bad guys.”"

"What good is it surviving the end of the world if there are still stupid rules about what grown-ups can do and kids can’t?"

"Nilsen looked up slowly. His face was as doubtful as that of a political prisoner who has just been informed that the revolution has made him president."

"I feel as if I’ve spent my working life throwing darts at a map and convincing myself that I’ve traveled to the places the darts hit."

"If a rocket screams across the darkness, the counterinsurgent can hunched down in his slit trench and pray that the glowing green ball with a sound like a steam locomotive will land on somebody else instead. Prayer probably won’t help, any more than it’ll stop the rain or make the mosquitoes stop biting. But nothing else will help either."

"Consider the origins of beauty and you soon realize that it is a triumph of accident. Be it human or art, the chances are its parents were toxic waste."

"Tolkien had this Britisher's sort of attitude that religion is something you do in church, and... It doesn't really do that much to your daily life... Whereas I’d been living and working in societies where religion is just permeating the atmosphere... Even the simple villagers are behaving in ways that they consider related directly to religion, rather than secular politics or something like this."

"I cannot conceive of an ancient, classical, mediaeval, or 'legendary' world without some form of organised religion... 'Religion,' in some form or another, is so central to the lives of most human beings that it cannot be omitted, minimised, or ignored"

"I once spent three months in Hong Kong long ago – compulsorily: I had lost my passport in Singapore, and the American embassy people did not believe I was an American until they checked my fingerprints with Washington. I thus ended up in Hong Kong waiting for my new passport to arrive. I was nearly penniless and lived quite comfortably in a brothel in Kowloon – without the services of the girls, I must add. They were all very nice to me, and my few remaining dollars were enough to pay for rice and an occasional bowl of vegetables. I thus saw Hong Kong from the underside, as it were. When my passport finally arrived, I managed to catch a Norwegian freighter going home to San Francisco. All of this was rather jolly, and the British police in Hong Kong were understanding. Everybody seemed to think I was either an agent for the Russians or an escaped Nazi war criminal, although I speak neither Russian nor German. Just my "good looks", I guess."

"Socially and culturally, Tekumel is as complex – and as alien to modern thinking – as Byzantium, ancient Egypt, Tenochtitlan, or the India of the Mughals. [...] The discerning reader will indeed perceive elements taken from [...] Egypt, the Aztecs and Mayans, the Hellenic Age, Mughal India, and mediaeval Europe."

"I lived in India for many years, and I often encountered very intelligent, sophisticated people who had absolutely no curiosity about how things worked or technology. In fact, there are many people here, myself included, who are not "scientifically curious" about how an electric motor works, how far away the stars are, or what materials make up their clothing, their toothpaste, or their shoes. We take some things as beyond the need for curiosity; other peoples take more, other, and different things as such. The tribal people I lived with in India saw the airplane from Calcutta to Delhi fly overhead every day; they shrugged, wondered briefly if it was a steel bird, and then went back to being totally uncurious about it."

"What matters? What is worth establishing and maintaining? Survival. Only survival. Individual survival is first; then comes the survival of the family, the clan, the tribe. These are immediately comprehensible. Beyond them lie ever larger and more diffuse, long-term loyalties."

"We American males make fun of each other, using jibes and sarcasm to embellish our conversations and establish bonds. When I did this with Indian and Pakistani friends, I got myself into lots of trouble! They have a wonderful sense of humour, too, but the manifestations and the "buttons they push" were VERY different. I have now learned to behave quite differently in their society. This is exaggerated when I deal with non-Westerners who have less exposure to American/European norms. Try kidding a Baluchi tribesman about his wife, and he’ll hand you your head!"

"Christianity and the other Middle Eastern religions were certainly alike in one respect: they all sweated over "sin." The ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead had a great judgment scene, Lessing had read somewhere. When you died, Thoth, the ibis-headed god, weighed your heart against the Feather of Truth. You confessed your sins before Osiris, the Lord of the Dead, and if you lied you were lunch for a crocodile-headed monster. Needless to say, this sternly moral scene was followed by other chapters that told you how to lie safely to the Forty-Two Judges of the Dead, how to con Osiris, how to fool old Croco-Smile, and how to sashay on into the Fields of the Blessed without anybody laying a hand, claw, or tentacle on you! Why did all the religions from that part of the world bother postulating an omnipotent, omniscient god who handed down iron-clad commandments—only to spend the rest of history figuring ways to bamboozle him? Must be something in the Middle Eastern psyche."

"Ah, but what about persons in our society who are not members of our ethnos? I shall not mince words. We are not responsible for members of such groups. This is our society. We live here, and we shall govern here. We thus strongly encourage others to go and live where their own ethnos-groups hold sway. We see no need for them in our land."

"If man has direct, hot-line access to God through prayer - and if God is "Good" (i.e. on mankind’s side essentially) – then what need is there of physical devices: weapons, crucifixes, talismans, holy water, and the like? On this one I pass. Go ask your friendly neighbourhood theologian."

"At last Lessing could let go. The Thousand Year Reich had gone off the track, derailed for a space of a hundred and forty-four years, but now it was back on and chugging along strong."

"We will not tolerate either mongrelization or the proliferation of unwanted and unassimilable persons who can never fully participate in our society. Should such people refuse to leave, then we will enforce our will with whatever means are needed. No excuses, no wishy-washy hypocrisy! We will not be blackmailed info being the Great White Father of all of the unfortunates of the world! Let other ethnos groups care for their own, just as we care for ours."

"He took the rotundity of the moon, and the curves of creepers, and the clinging of tendrils, and the trembling of grass, and the slenderness of the reed, and the bloom of flowers, and the lightness of leaves, and the tapering of the elephant's trunk, and the glances of deer, and the clustering of rows of bees, and the joyous gaiety of sunbeams, and the weeping of clouds, and the fickleness of the winds, and the timidity of the hare, and the vanity of the peacock, and the softness of the parrot’s bosom, and the hardness of adamant, and the sweetness of honey, and the cruelty of the tiger, and the warm glow of fire, and the coldness of snow, and the chattering of jays, and the cooing of the kókila, and the hypocrisy of the crane, and the fidelity of the chakrawáka; and compounding all these together he made woman, and gave her to man."

"Science is about wonder, Jalila. I was a poor teacher if I never told you that."

"“We all invent memories,” he said. “Didn't you write fiction? You should know that memories and the past are quite different propositions.”"

"Nun will euch Hülfe bringen Der gnadenreiche Tod. Den müßt ihr freundlich grüßen. Dann wird er freundlich auch Und kehrt in Lust das Büssen."

"“You don’t want to be King,” he said, his tone accusatory. Lyam laughed bitterly. “No sane man would.”"

"He was always complaining of there being so much to learn and so little time to learn it. And that from a man who had lived years beyond numbering."

"Many men do things they regret later. Only a few are granted the opportunity to make amends."

"“Second, there must never be a time when the need for stability overrules the need for growth.” “But we have always grown!” objected Hochopepa. “Not true,” countered Milamber. “You have always expanded, and that seems like growth if you don’t investigate closely. But while your armies have been bringing new lands into your borders, what has happened to your art, your music, your literature, your research? Even the vaunted Assembly does little more than refine that which is already known.”"

"That you have lived as you have lived for centuries is no license for this cruelty. All here are now judged, and all are found wanting."

"The Empire must change its course, or it is doomed to fall. The rotten, weak heart of this culture cannot support its own weight much longer, and like a ngaggi tree with a rotten core, it will collapse under its own weight."

"I think I know what power can do, and what sort of men seek it."

"The war goes on. Good for the merchants, bad for the rest."

"“There is no place like the sea, gentlemen. Those who live on land all their lives can never truly understand. The sea is basic, sometimes cruel, sometimes gentle, and never predictable. But it is nights like this that make me thankful the gods allowed me to be a sailor.” Arutha said, “And something of a philosopher as well.” Amos chuckled. “Take any deep-water sailor who’s faced death at sea as many times as I have, and scratch him lightly. Underneath you’ll find a philosopher, Highness. No fancy words, I’ll warrant you, but a deep abiding sense of his place in the world.”"

"“It would be a proper occasion for you to make some sort of entrance into court society.” “I’m sorry, Hocho,” Milamber said, “I have little desire to attend any festivals. I have been to one earlier this month, in Ontoset, as part of my studies. The dances are boring, the food tends toward the awful, and the wine is as flat as the speeches. The games are of less interest still. If this is the court society you speak of, then I’ll be fine without it.”"

"As I thought. That man’s got the heart of a shark, which is to say none, and the courage of a jellyfish, which is also to say none."

"“It seems to me there are several major problems here, problems I can only guess at in terms of impact upon the Empire. “First”—he held up his index finger—“those in power are more concerned with their own grandeur than with the well-being of the Empire. And as they are those who appear to the casual eye to be the Empire, it is an easy thing not to notice.”"

"I see myself as a servant of the gods, though that may be only my vanity speaking."

"“There are many ways to love someone. Sometimes we want to love so much, we’re not too choosy about who we love. Other times we make love such a pure and noble thing, no poor human can ever meet our vision. But for the most part, love is a recognition, an opportunity to say, ‘There is something about you I cherish.’ It doesn’t entail marriage, or even physical love. There’s love of parents, love of city or nation, love of life, and love of people. All different, all love.”"

"There is only one thing I know of that a woman hates more than a man she doesn’t like paying her too much attention—and that’s lack of attention from a man she does like."

"Love is like a lot of things, it is always best done with the head. Save mindless efforts for mindless things."

"I am!—he cries, and a million philosophies cry out in wonder."

"Aye, and it’s a brave dwarf who loots a dragon’s lair."

"We of the Assembly support the Empire because on this world it is the single most powerful force for order—not because it is noble, or fair, or beautiful, or just. But because of it the majority of humanity can live and work without war in their homelands, can live without famine, plagues, and the other disasters of older times. And with this order around us, we of the Assembly can work unhindered."

"All creatures fear change, even the gods."