People From Cleveland

"Yet this withholding of knowledge ran against every grain of his character. He believed intensely that the refusal to share knowledge demeaned both the denier and the denied."

"Power was dreadful and treacherous. When it was not great enough to accomplish its wielder’s desires, it turned against the hands which held it."

"I loved you before that. I love you now. I’m just an unconscionable bastard, and I used you, that’s all. Now I regret it."

"You know, where I come from, the people who did this to a forest would be called pioneers—a very special breed of heroes, since instead of killing other human beings they concentrate on slaughtering nature itself."

"The prevailing breeze from the Forest blew into his face, and for the first time in many days he was able to distinguish the tang of the season. He found that the autumn of the Land had turned its corner, traveled its annual round from joy to sorrow. The air no longer gleamed with abundance and fruition, with ripeness either glad or grim. Now the breeze tasted like the leading edge of winter—a sere augury, promising long nights and barrenness and cold."

"Dreaming is like—it’s like being a slave. Your dreams come out of all the parts of you that you don’t have any control over."

"If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather hear something that makes sense."

"“That’s madness!” Covenant gasped thickly. Elena’s gaze wavered on the edge of focus, and he could not bear to look at her. “Do you think that some existence after death is going to vindicate you after you’ve simply extirpated life from the earth? That was exactly Kevin’s mistake. I tell you, he is roasting in hell!”"

"I was trying to give her something, make it up to her somehow. But that doesn’t work. When you’ve hurt someone that badly, you can’t go around giving them gifts. That’s arrogant and cruel."

"No one person has the right to withhold knowledge from another. No one is wise enough."

"I have no special virtue to make me resent him. One must have strength in order to judge the weakness of others. I am not so mighty."

"Power is power. Its uses are in the hands of the user."

"War puts burdens on people without caring whether they are ready for them or not."

"Do not hurt where holding is enough; do not wound where hurting is enough; do not maim where wounding is enough; and kill not where maiming is enough; the greatest warrior is he who does not need to kill."

"I would say that happiness lies in serving the Land. And I would say that there is no happiness in times of war."

"It may be that hope misleads. But hate—hate corrupts. I have been too quick to hate. I become like what I abhor."

"Don’t talk like a damned mystic. Say something I can understand."

"All you need to avoid despair is irremediable stupidity or unlimited stubbornness."

"“That was a joke. Or a metaphor.” Covenant made another effort to turn his sarcasm into humor. “I can never tell the difference.”"

"Dreams—never forgive."

"Ah, it is hard to take pride in human history."

"“Go to hell,” Covenant mumbled. “Don’t you ever sleep?” “The Bloodguard do not sleep.” “What?” “No Bloodguard has slept since the Haruchai swore their Vow.” With an effort, Covenant pulled himself into a sitting position. He peered blearily at Bannor for a moment, then muttered, “You’re already in hell.”"

"“We have searched the seas, and have waited for the omens to come to pass.” Foamfollower paused to look thoughtfully at Covenant, then went on: “Ah, my Lords, omening is curious. So much is said—and so little made clear.”"

"I admit the desire. But do not tempt me. Power has a way of revenging itself upon its usurpers."

"A good laugh, Covenant sighed morosely. Did I do a whole life’s laughing in that little time?"

"Foamfollower’s question caught him wandering. “Are you a storyteller, Thomas Covenant?” Absently, he replied, “I was, once.” “And you gave it up? Ah, that is as sad a tale in three words as any you might have told me. But a life without a tale is like a sea without salt. How do you live?”… “I live.” “Another?” Foamfollower returned. “In two words, a story sadder than the first. Say no more—with one word you will make me weep.”"

"“Why? Why do you trust me?” The Hirebrand’s eyes gleamed as if he were on the verge of tears, but he was smiling as he said, “You are a man who knows the value of beauty.”"

"In accepting a gift you honor the giver."

"It was clear to all there gathered that power is a dreadful thing, and that knowledge of power dims the seeing of the wise."

"In war men pass like shadows that stain the grass, Leaving their lives upon the green: While Earth bewails the crimson sheen, Men’s dreams and stars and whispers all helpless pass."

"“One word more,” Foul said, “a final caution: Do not forget whom to fear at the last. I have had to be content with killing and torment. But now my plans are laid, and I have begun. I shall not rest until I have eradicated hope from the Earth. Think on that, and be dismayed!”"

"As a science fiction fan, I have long been very familiar with the various themes in the field. The superman theme has been one of them ever since Samson and Hercules. I just sat down and wrote a story of that type — only in this first story, the Superman was a villain. A couple of months after I published this story, it occurred to me that a Superman as a hero rather than as a villain might make a great comic strip character in the vein of Tarzan, only more super and sensational than that great character. Joe and I drew it up as a comic book."

"In the January, 1933 issue of "SCIENCE FICTION" appeared a story I had written in 1932 entitled, "The Reign of the Superman." I used the pseudonym "Herbert S. Fine" which combined the name of a cousin of mine together with my mother's maiden name. After the publication of "Reign of the Superman", it occurred to me that a different version of Superman could be the basis of an extremely powerful and successful comic book. And so I originated, together with Joe Shuster, the comic book "THE SUPERMAN", back in 1933."

"Superman! Champion of the oppressed. The physical marvel who had sworn to devote his existence to helping those in need."

"The Reign of the Superman"

"Initially, we were turned down by almost every comics publisher in the country."

"One night, when all the thoughts were coming to me, the concept came to me that Superman could have a dual identity, and that in one of his identities he could be meek and mild, as I was, and wear glasses, the way I do. The heroine, who I figured would be some kind of girl reporter, would think he was some kind of worm; yet she would be crazy about this Superman character who could do all sorts of fabulous things. In fact, she was real wild about him, and a big inside joke was that the fellow she was crazy about was also the fellow whom she loathed."

"Clark Kent grew not only out of my private life, but also out of Joe Shuster's. As a high school student, I thought that someday I might become a reporter, and I had crushes on several attractive girls who either didn't know I existed or didn't care I existed."

"You just watch. There is going to be a Columbine-times-10 incident, and everyone will finally get it. Either that, or some video gamer is going to go Columbine at some video game exec's expense or at E3, and then the industry will begin to realize that there is no place to hide, that it has trained a nation of Manchurian Children."

"I'm only interested in virile men. That's why I'm not attracted to you."

"Grand Theft Auto IV is the gravest assault upon children in this country since polio. We now have vaccines for that virus... The 'vaccine' that must be administered by the United States government to deal with this virtual virus of violence and sexual depravity is criminal prosecutions of those who have conspired to do this."

"This is not rocket science. When a kid who has never killed anyone in his life goes on a rampage and looks like the Terminator, he's a video gamer."

"You take a 22-year-old American, you shoot at him all day long, you deprive him of sleep, you make him see his buddies being killed, he has their blood on his boots and blouse, and when you don't see perfection in his decisions you court-martial him? It's absurd."

"We're not going to spread democracy at the business end of a M16 held by a 23 year old Marine."

"With all that this country has given me, I felt it wasn't right for me to be enjoying life in Indian Hill when Marines were fighting and dying in Iraq."

"Ask Mr. Lee what fad is in. Now you can wear and be X. Legacy turns novelty."

"See the fear and terror as black men run. White is right in the white man’s world, on the big white screen."

"If I can reconcile myself to the certainty of death only by forgetting it, I am not happy. And if I can dispose of the fact of human misery about me only by shutting my thoughts as well as myself within my comfortable garden, I may assure myself that I am happy, but I am not. There is a skeleton in the closet of the universe, and I may at any moment be in the face of it. Happiness is inseparable from confidence in action; and confidence of action is inseparable from what the schoolmen called peace -- that is, poise of mind with reference to everything I may possibly encounter in the chances of fortune. Now this perfect openness to experience is not possible if pain is the last word of pain. Unless there is something behind the fact of pain, some kind of mystery or problem in it whose solution shows the pain to be other than what it pretends, there is no happiness for man in this world or the next; for no matter how fair the world might in time become, the fact that it had been as bad as it is would remain an unbanishable misery, unbanishable by God or any other power."

"This merely formal conceiving of the facts of one's own wretchedness is at the same time a departure from them--placing them in the object. It is not idle, therefore, to observe reflexively that in that very Thought, one has separated himself from them, and is no longer that which empirically he still sees himself to be."

"There is, then, in these matters some absolute finding in the seeking: salvation is, to seek salvation, for in seeking it one has already abandoned mortality and his sin."