Jack Vance Quotes
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So I'll write it, and then I'll find out that I actually wrote something that is utterly useless. You can't use it in the story and it doesn't fit. So I just throw it away. I've done that countless times.
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The less a writer discusses his work-and himself-the better. The master chef slaughters no chickens in the dining room; the doctor writes prescriptions in Latin; the magician hides his hinges, mirrors, and trapdoors with the utmost care.
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'It is simple dog-eat-dog,' said Waylock. It’s basic battle for survival, fiercer and more brutal than ever before in the history of man. You have blinded yourself; you subscribe to false theories; you are permeated with your obsession-not only you but all of us. If we faced the facts of existence, our palliatories would be less crowded.'
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Die then. This is my cure for sore knees.
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What a strange and unfamiliar world if everyone were treated according to his deserts!
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Yes, I realize that I see but a semblance, but so do you, and who is to say which is real?
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The history of man is a compendium of such evil. We are an evolutionary product, descendants of predators. A few synthetic foods aside, every morsel eaten by man is taken from another living thing. We are intended for murder; we kill to exist!
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I have transcended that phase in my intellectual growth where I discover humour in simple freakishness. What exists is real; therefore it is tragic, since wherever lives must die. Only fantasy, the vapours rising from sheer nonsense, can now excite my laughter.
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I never made lots of money at it, but I sold enough.
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'Let them scoff as they see fit! I will never compromise what I consider my art, especially for the sake of gain!''For the sake of gain I’d compromise the art of my grandmother,' muttered Zamp under his breath.
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'Sir Tristano spoke: 'Stop! You are taking the great green pearl!''Naturally!' said the voice from a point close behind. 'That is the whole point of robbery: to acquire the victim’s valuables!'
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'I think that I will not answer that question,' he said at last. 'I would create as many false images as there were ears to hear me.''Half as many,' Clissum pointed out delicately.
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There can be no doubt as to the facts as I have stated them. Orthodoxy derives from this axiomatic foundation, and the two systems are mutually reinforcing: hence each is doubly validated.
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I categorically declare first my absolute innocence, second my lack of criminal intent, and third my effusive apologies.
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Kings, like children, tend to be opportunistic. Generosity only spoils them. They equate affability with weakness and hasten to exploit it.
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An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought.
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He said that humanity in the main was crass, stupid, boorish and vulgar, and that I could learn at least this much from you.
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'I would define ‘avarice’ as a consequence of the human estate: a condition arising from turbulence and inequality. In none of the paradises, where conditions are no doubt optimum, does ‘avarice’ exert force. Here, we are men struggling toward perfection and ‘avarice’ is a station along the way.'
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'Down we go,' said Paddy. 'Now pray to Saint Anthony if you be a good Catholic-''I'm not,' snapped Fay, 'and if you'll give more mind to the boat and less to religion we’ll gain by it.'
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If one basic axiom controls the cosmos, it must be this: In a situation of infinity every possible condition occurs, not once, but an infinite number of times.
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I am not called Cugel the Clever for nothing.
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Dango, Pume, Thwither: down with Visbhume’s breeches; let him hold his backside at the ready.
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I suspect that the word (art) was invented by second-rate intelligences to describe the incomprehensible activities of their betters.
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Cease the bickering! I am indulging the exotic whims of a beautiful princess and must not be distracted.