Jeff Vandermeer Quotes
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I always try to be alert to the potential for repetition, for a decaying orbit with regard to my use of technique, etc.
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Trump lays bare a lot of things already wrong with our society. But he also accelerates the process of it becoming worse, when it could be getting better.
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In a sense, fictional dystopias have been a way of distracting us from the truth of our condition by placing it 'over there.'
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I like North Florida because it's much wilder than the rest of the state.
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Heroes aren't always people who save others in the normal sense. Sometimes they're people who keep trying even when things seem impossible.
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'Borne,' in a weird way, even though it's a totally different universe, picks up where the 'Southern Reach Trilogy' leaves off, because it's post-apocalyptic.
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My mom was a biological illustrator for a time before computers replaced that job.
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I'm an agnostic trending toward atheist and resist, in particular, Christian interpretations and imagery.
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Cross-pollination and 'contamination' is really important to the health of fiction, and sometimes it's a literal conversation, too, in that writers who might never otherwise meet and talk do so because of our anthologies.
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My stepmom is one of the leading researchers on lupus in the world.
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I used to work for a succession of software editing companies that would have contracts with state and federal agencies. And I would be the documenter of meetings, sometimes doing limited business analysis. I began to become quite cynical about how the world works. It works on ineptitude and inefficiency and a kind of passiveness.
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There's also a lot of gritty Americana type of bands. I actually have a lot of Britpop on my iPod, too.
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So many differing opinions and philosophies... are rarely housed under the roof of a single magazine.
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I have always tended toward a lush prose style, but I take care to modulate it from story to story and to strip it down entirely when necessary.
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My mother is an artist, and I have a strong visual sense. I almost always choose the cover art for my books. I've learned that the more I collaborate, like by having someone do a soundtrack to one of my books, the more I see my own work differently.
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When you describe a character's dream, it has to be sharper than reality in some way and more meaningful. It has to somehow speak to plot, character, and all the rest.
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My dad is an entomologist and research chemist. That's why he was in Fiji, studying the rhinoceros beetle invasive species.
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Every day, I get up, and I fill the bird feeders and put out fruit and other food for both the birds and any passing mammals. Is that pointless long-term? I have no idea. All I know is that on this day, in this moment, it makes a difference.
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There are some beautiful creatures in the ocean that seem very alien at the same time.
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My parents were in the Peace Corps.
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My best time to write is right after coffee and breakfast - four eggs - because, full disclosure, I'm really a komodo dragon - and that's because then I'm energized but not so awake that the critical voice clicks on, the voice that sometimes says, 'Don't write that,' or, 'Man, that sentence is terrible - you should give up and go pet the cats.'
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There simply aren't enough constitutional safeguards in place to protect against a rogue president.
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Film fixes a precise visual image in the viewer's head. In fiction, you just hope you're precise enough to convey the intended effect.
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I'm not a fan of fiction that's totally hopeless.