Mike Resnick > Quotes

“You believe in God?" demanded Billy Karma.

"I believe in thirty-seven separate and distinct gods," answered Argyle proudly. "That puts me thirty-six ahead of you."

"It makes you a pagan."

"It makes you a man of limited vision," said Argyle.”
― Mike Resnick, The Outpost

“Whatever your grievances, I'm sure we can address them without resorting to war," persisted Argyle....
Nonsense," said the alien. "Do you know how many laborers and industries we'd put out of work if we were to stop the war just because a few bleeding hearts think we can talk out our grievances?”
― Mike Resnick, The Outpost

“And that is the story of the boy who cried "Dragon!"
Of course, when dragons sit around the campire at night or tuck their children into bed, they tell the story of the dragon who cried "Boy!”
― Mike Resnick, Young Warriors: Stories of Strength

“The Boy looked at him for a long time before responding. “Well, as long as you’re my friend, I’ll never ignore you,” he said with conviction. “I know what it’s like to be invisible to other people.”
― Mike Resnick

“It's just the nature of things. Every lawyer starts out seeking justice and winds up seeking victories. Every doctor want to save his patients and ends up wanting to save his investments. And every journalist starts out caring about the truth and ends up caring about circulation.”
― Mike Resnick, Starship: Mutiny

“Small minds don’t grow, no matter how long you water them.”
― Mike Resnick, Funny Science Fiction

“Don't worry about it. If I'm wrong, Security is monitoring me every second."
"That just means they'll know who to charge with your murder," said Forrice.
"Are you always this optimistic?"
"I have to be an optimist," explained Forrice. "I won't have anyone to tease if they kill you.”
― Mike Resnick, Starship: Mutiny

“Once having seen it, you must draw or paint so that others can see it. Not the thing itself, but the way it seems, that is art. What else is there?”
― Mike Resnick, Galaxy's Edge Magazine Issue 5, November 2013

“L'Homme a arrêté son évolution après avoir inventé la roue et l'air climatisé.”
― Mike Resnick

“I hated as hard as I could. I thought about Nazis. Air pollution. The Twilight books. Bill O’Reilly (beginner’s mistake; political hate is notoriously hard to channel). Calculus.”
― Mike Resnick, Funny Science Fiction

“Cole shrugged. "Maybe. But if Forrice had been in charge of the Quentin the way I planned it originally, there's a fifty-fifty chance it would have made it back."
"And a fifty-fifty chance the Kermit wouldn't have."
"True," he admitted. "But Mount Fuji sacrificed himself. It was a noble thing to do, but I was taught that it's never a good idea to die for your side. The object of the exercise is to make your enemy die for his side.”
― Mike Resnick, Starship: Mutiny

“at last count we have eight hundred and four ships, including those that Lafferty can make available to us.”
― Mike Resnick, Starship: Flagship

“No military man is ever anxious to fight,” said Cole. “We’ve seen war, and we’ve seen peace, and there’s not a soldier or sailor anywhere in the galaxy who doesn’t think peace is better.”
― Mike Resnick, Starship: Mercenary

“JW: How do you use death in your writing? Martin: I don’t think of it in those terms, that I’m using death for any purpose. I think a writer, even a fantasy writer, has an obligation to tell the truth and the truth is, as we say in Game of Thrones, all men must die. Particularly if you’re writing about war, which is certainly a central subject in Game of Thrones. It has been in a lot of my fiction, not all of it by any means but certainly a lot of it, going all the way back to “The Hero,” which was a story about a warrior. You can’t write about war and violence without having death. If you want to be honest it should affect your main characters. We’ve all read this story a million times when a bunch of heroes set out on adventure and it’s the hero and his best friend and his girlfriend and they go through amazing hair-raising adventures and none of them die. The only ones who die are extras. That’s such a cheat. It doesn’t happen that way. They go into battle and their best friend dies or they get horribly wounded. They lose their leg or death comes at them unexpectedly. Death”
― Mike Resnick, Galaxy's Edge Magazine Issue 10, September 2014

“The President faced the microphone with a look of utter helplessness, like a man reading My Pet Goat to a group of pre-schoolers as a major terrorist attack happens elsewhere.”
― Mike Resnick, Funny Science Fiction

“Things known to start the dog barking include, but are not limited to: sunrise, sunset, darkness, rain, helicopters, radios, clouds, children’s laughter, anyone entering any of the back yards adjoining the yard where my neighbor has penned his dog, garbage collectors, birds, squirrels, and air.”
― Mike Resnick, Funny Science Fiction

“When he was still about forty feet away he stopped, walked over to a bulkhead, and tapped on”
― Mike Resnick, Starship: Flagship

“No!” she said adamantly. “The Captain doesn't leave his ship in enemy territory, damn it!”
― Mike Resnick, Starship: Flagship

“Tell me, doc. Tell me. Why do they have wars?” I shook my head. Was there ever a good reason? To make the world safe for democracy? To stop the death camps? To free the slaves? Maybe. Those were better reasons than cheap oil. But up close, no matter what the reason, it was husbands and sons and brothers who never came home.”
― Mike Resnick, Galaxy's Edge Magazine Issue 12, January 2015: Predestination Movie Tie-In Special

“It consisted of nine levels, with docking facilities that could handle almost ten thousand ships,”
― Mike Resnick, Starship: Rebel

“I collect the words unheard. I pluck them from the air, rescue them from gutters, retrieve them from branches—they don’t vibrate for long after the words are spoken. I often wonder if I weren’t deaf whether I’d hear them. I gather them on my morning walk, along with bottles and cans from recycling bins, and again after supper at St. Joseph’s soup kitchen.”
― Mike Resnick, Galaxy's Edge Magazine Issue 8, May 2014

“Oh, Christ. Word stuff, paper stuff, and that’s neither words nor paper in that goddam little coffin, that’s my son, my kid, my little dirty gap-toothed boy with the torn britches and the scabs on his knees, and he wasn’t ever intended to ride thunder and bridle lightning, no man is. Pulp heroes were all made of wood and they could do it, but Dan’s human and soft and easily broken. He hasn’t any business there, no man has.”
― Mike Resnick, Galaxy's Edge Magazine Issue 4, September 2013

“About the only valid definition (of science fiction) that I’m willing to accept is this: all of modern, mainstream, and realistic fiction is simply a branch, a category, or a subset of science fiction.”
― Mike Resnick

“The second you attain power”
― Mike Resnick, Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future

“The only answer a truly dedicated writer has to “What are your best books (or stories)?” is “My second best is the one I’m writing now, and my best is the one I’ll be writing next.”
― Mike Resnick, Q & A for Science Fiction Writers

“I know who you are,” I said. “Buddha would say that you lose that knowledge as soon as you speak it.” “I’m”
― Mike Resnick, Galaxy's Edge Magazine Issue 10, September 2014

“I spent a lot of time thinking about the Soviet Union these last few years, spent three chilly weeks there last year, 1984—and I don’t mean the temperature. What’s next? Clearly, the Soviet Union is doomed. This will surprise some; we tend to think big institutions last. After it falls, we’ll see a sudden world realization that freedom and free markets work—big shock, for some. Technology will open doors for us—computers and the internet particularly. But then new enemies of reason and science will arise, and we’ll have to fend them off—by making the experience and wonder of science dwell in people’s minds, not as spectacle (which too often science fiction is, merely), but as insight.”
― Mike Resnick, Galaxy's Edge Magazine Issue 8, May 2014

“Of course, when dragons sit around the campfire at night or tuck their children into bed, they tell the story of the dragon who cried "Boy!”
― Mike Resnick, Young Warriors: Stories of Strength