James > James's Quotes

“So even in hell, there are clowns.”
― Vernor Vinge, A Deepness in the Sky

“There is a fullness and calmness there which can come only from knowing pain.”
― Dan Simmons, Hyperion

“If you evade suffering you also evade the chance of joy. Pleasure you may get, or pleasures, but you will not be fulfilled. You will not know what it is to come home.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia

“Your heart's desire is to be told some mystery. The mystery is that there is no mystery.”
― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West

“But I said that you could still want something that is very unlikely to happen.”
― Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

“Why am I always looking at life through a window?”
― Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon

“When people disagreed with him he urged them to be objective.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

“But it was pointless, it was stupid; he thought about thoughtless things. If I were a seabird . . . but how could you be a seabird? If you were a seabird your brain would be tiny and stupid and you would love half-rotted fish guts and tweaking the eyes out of little grazing animals; you would know no poetry and you could never appreciate flying as fully as the human on the ground yearning to be you.
If you wanted to be a seabird you deserved to be one.”
― Iain M. Banks, Use of Weapons

“The universe is indifferent to our fates. This was the crushing burden that the character took with him as he struggled through the surf toward survival or extinction. The universe just does not give a shit.”
― Dan Simmons, Endymion

“But as with so many things in our lives, the reason for doing something is not the important thing. It is the fact of doing that remains.”
― Dan Simmons, Endymion

“The shortest route to courage is absolute ignorance.”
― Dan Simmons, Endymion

“Be assured, I do not suffer from a sense of humor.”
― Dan Simmons, Endymion

“Choose again.”
― Dan Simmons, The Rise of Endymion

“A guilty system recognizes no innocents.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games

“It was not so difficult to understand the warped view the Azadians had of what they called "human nature" - the phrase they used whenever they had to justify something inhuman and unnatural”
― Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games

“It was rude, insulting and frequently infuriating, but it made such a refreshing change from the awful politeness of most people.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games

“Sometimes I start to think I’m repeating myself, that even new games are just old ones in disguise, and that nothing’s worth playing for anyway.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games

“The better I do the worse things get because the more I have to lose.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games

“He thought the common people must be remarkably stupid if they believed all this nonsense.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games

“All this natural misery,” Dr. Goodsir said suddenly. “Why do you men have to add to it? Why does our species always have to take our full measure of God-given misery and terror and mortality and then make it worse? Can you answer me that, Mr. Hickey?”
― Dan Simmons, The Terror

“Men who read a lot have a more sensitive disposition, added Fowler. [...]

I did not know what to say to this.

Maybe reading is a sort of curse is all I mean, concluded Fowler. Maybe it's better for a man to stay inside his own mind.

Amen, I felt like saying, although I do not know why.”
― Dan Simmons, The Terror

“The Ice Master was too injured and too exhausted to crawl any farther. Let whatever was going to happen to him happen now and may a Sailor's God fuck to Hell this fucking thing that was going to eat him.”
― Dan Simmons, The Terror

“Evolution brings human beings. Human beings, through a long and painful process, bring humanity.”
― Dan Simmons, Hyperion

“Who was Hitler?' I said.
Tyrena smiled slightly. 'An Old Earth politician who did some writing.”
― Dan Simmons, Hyperion

“The whole planet reeks of mysticism without revelation.”
― Dan Simmons, Hyperion

“No one wants to pay for a look at another person's angst.”
― Dan Simmons, Hyperion

“After ten standard months I was done, acknowledging the ancient aphorism to the effect that no book or poem is ever finished, merely abandoned.”
― Dan Simmons, Hyperion

“Can God play a significant game with his own creature? Can any creator, even a limited one, play a significant game with his own creature?”
― Dan Simmons, Hyperion

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
― George Orwell, Animal Farm

“Four legs good, two legs bad.”
― George Orwell, Animal Farm