Lawrence Watt-Evans > Quotes

“See, everything that ever could possibly have happened, in the entire history of the universe right from the Big Bang up until now, _did_ happen -- somewhere. And _every_ possible difference means a different universe. Not just if Napoleon lost at Waterloo, or won, or whatever he didn't do here; what does Napoleon matter to the _universe_, anyway? Betelgeuse doesn't give a flying damn for all of Europe, past, present, or future. But every single atom or particle or whatever, whenever it had a chance to do something -- break up or stay together, or move one direction instead of another, whatever -- it did _all_ of them, but all in different universes. They didn't branch off, either -- all the universes were always there, there just wasn't any difference between them until this particular event came along. And that means that there are millions and millions of identical universes, too, where the differences haven't happened yet. There's an infinite number of universes, more than that an infinity of infinities, I mean you can't really comprehend it. If you think you're close then multiply that a few zillion times -- everything is out there.”
― Lawrence Watt-Evans, Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers

“But I remember a scene where someone sneaks out into the woods to meet someone. ... And that's where it came from. Everything else is there to turn it from an image into a story. ... That image was strong enough for me to never give up on it, no matter what my editors and agents thought.”
― Lawrence Watt-Evans

“The contrivance was quite fantastic, and presented the appearance of some new, highly complicated musical instrument. I remember that there were many wires of varying thickness, stretched on a series of concave sounding-boards of some dark, unlustrous metal; and above these, there depended from three horizontal bars a number of square, circular and triangular gongs. Each of these appeared to be made of a different material; some were bright as gold, or translucent as jade; others were black and opaque as jet. A small hammer-like instrument hung opposite each gong, at the end of a silver wire. Averaud proceeded to expound the scientific basis of his mechanism. The vibrational properties of the gongs, he said, were designed to neutralize with their sound-pitch all other cosmic vibrations than those of evil. He dwelt at much length on this extravagant theorem, developing it in a fashion oddly lucid. He ended his peroration: “I need one more gong to complete the instrument; and this I hope to invent very soon. The triangular room, draped in black, and without windows, forms the ideal setting for my experiment. Apart from this room, I have not ventured to make any change in the house or its grounds, for fear of deranging some propitious element or collocation of elements.” More than ever, I thought that he was mad. And, though he had professed on many occasions to abhor the evil which he planned”
― Lawrence Watt-Evans, The Mad Scientist Megapack: 23 Tales of Scientists, Creatures, & Diabolical Experiments!

“Sterren realized he would have to rely on his wits -- and those wits were good enough that he knew he would rather not have to rely on them.”
― Lawrence Watt-Evans, The Unwilling Warlord