Piers Anthony > Quotes

“Being terrified but going ahead and doing what must be done—that's courage. The one who feels no fear is a fool, and the one who lets fear rule him is a coward.”
― Piers Anthony, Castle Roogna

“One thing you who had secure or happy childhoods should understand about those of us who did not. We who control our feelings, who avoid conflicts at all costs, or seem to seek them. Who are hypersensitive, self-critical, compulsive, workaholic, and above all survivors. We are not that way from perversity, and we cannot just relax and let it go. We’ve learned to cope in ways you never had to.”
― Piers Anthony

“I think it's a shame that something as creative and vital to the nature of the human species as story-telling is largely controlled by the soulless cretins known as publishers.”
― Piers Anthony

“When you steal from the library, you are preventing anyone else from reading that book, and the very notion makes me want to drop you in the Void.”
― Piers Anthony, Golem in the Gears

“One day you'll discover that the opinions of worthless people are worthless.”
― Piers Anthony, A Spell for Chameleon

“Adults had the notion that juveniles needed to suffer. Only when they had suffered enough to wipe out most of their naturally joyous spirits and innocence were they staid enough to be considered mature. An adult was essentially a broken-down child.”
― Piers Anthony, Centaur Aisle

“Happy children do not seem to grow up to be writers.”
― Piers Anthony

“Every person professes to love good and hate evil, but in his actions his real preferences emerges.”
― Piers Anthony, Bearing an Hourglass

“But one must go where one's road leads, even when it's a distressing road.”
― Piers Anthony, Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn

“For our stories are not yet finished, and perhaps will never be.”
― Piers Anthony, Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn

“Never thought I'd see the day when Death was denied. That leaves taxes as the only certainty.”
― Piers Anthony

“Decent folk had to let indecent folk do their thing; that was the paradox of decency.”
― Piers Anthony, On a Pale Horse

“People talk-- they sneer at escapism. Well, there are those of us who need it.”
― Piers Anthony

“Be what you are; it is better that way.
--Dolph”
― Piers Anthony, Heaven Cent

“Dor woke again as dawn came. The sun had somehow gotten around to the east, where the land was, and dried off so that it could shine again.”
― Piers Anthony, Centaur Aisle

“What kind of fool had he been, to throw away romance untried?”
― Piers Anthony, On a Pale Horse

“She looked around. "Oh, I've just got to hug somebody! You!" And she hugged Puck, the little ghost horse. "And you." She hugged Pook, and Peek, and even the nose of the moat monster. "But not you," she decided, encountering the zombie.”
― Piers Anthony, Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn

“You don't have to settle for what you are at this moment. You can work to make a difference.
--Chex”
― Piers Anthony, Vale of the Vole

“Man is the one creature on Earth who knows he will die, and that is an appalling intellectual burden.”
― Piers Anthony, On a Pale Horse

“Is it foolish to care for non-existent folk?
Then, leave me to my foolishness.”
― Piers Anthony, With a Tangled Skein

“Evil can never touch the person who refuses to accept it.”
― Piers Anthony, Bearing an Hourglass

“All things make sense; you just have to fathom how they make sense.”
― Piers Anthony

“By all means. Swords have ever been the best servants of crazy men.”
― Piers Anthony, Castle Roogna

“...the sweetest temptation could be that which was known to be the most foolish.”
― Piers Anthony, Vale of the Vole

“Why did things have to be so complicated with human beings?...Yet if we were not what we were, creatures with at least the awareness of purpose and honor, what would we be? Empty knights in armor, seeming so strong on the outside, yet hollow inside?”
― Piers Anthony, Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn

“Barbarian --A Code of Conduct honored by all true barbarian warriors, requiring excellent coordination with weapons, closeness to nature, awkwardness with women, common sense, and completion of the mission.”
― Piers Anthony, Golem in the Gears

“Information is power.
--Humfrey”
― Piers Anthony, Question Quest

“At this slower pace the journey took a couple of days, and I fought off a few minor threats along the way --griffins, carnivorous plants, giant serpents, hostile centaurs, that sort of thing, purely routine --and I was beginning to get bored when at last the dusky towers of Castle Roogna hove into view.”
― Piers Anthony, Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn

“How many people similarly spent their lives searching for their own spells—some gratuitous benefit such as a silver tree or political power or undeserved acclaim—when all they really needed was to be satisfied with what they already had? Sometimes what they had was better than what they thought they wanted.”
― Piers Anthony, A Spell for Chameleon

“Bink knew the dolphin only from old pictures; it was a kind of magic fish that breathed air instead of water.”
― Piers Anthony, A Spell for Chameleon