Patrick O'Leary
https://www.instagram.com/paddybono/
“I'm an animal, you can see that I'm an animal. I have no words, they haven't taught me the words; I don't know how to think, those bastards didn't let me learn how to think. But if you really are-all powerful, all knowing, all understanding-figure it out! Look into my soul, I know-everything you need is in there. It has to be. Because I've never sold my soul to anyone! It's mine, it's human! Figure out yourself what I want because I know it can't be bad! The hell with it all, I just can't think of a thing other than those words of his- HAPPINESS, FREE, FOR EVERYONE, AND LET NO ONE BE FORGOTTEN!”
― Roadside Picnic
― Roadside Picnic
“There was a time when I could put the palm of my hand flat on the front of a tattered paperback called The Dying Earth and feel the magic seeping through the cardboard: Turjan of Miir, Liane the Wayfarer, T’sais, Chun the Unavoidable. Nobody I knew had so much as heard of that book, but I knew it was the finest book in the world. (Castle of Days, 211)”
― Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun: A Chapter Guide
― Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun: A Chapter Guide
“In my GEnie days (1991-1996?) I discussed the fiction of Gene Wolfe with Greg Feeley, Neil Gaiman, Joe Mayhew, Michael Swanwick, and Jeff Wilson, among others. I published Lexicon Urthus in 1994. The Lexicon brought me letters from David Langford. It also brought me friendship with Alice K. Turner (1939-2015), and she talked me into joining the Urth List in 1997. There I met many, but for this application I will limit the roll to Marc Aramini, Robert Borski, Craig Brewer, Bill Carmichael, Roy C. Lackey, Jonathan Laidlow, Dan Parmenter, Nigel Price, Pedro Jorge Romero, and James Wynn.”
― Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun: A Chapter Guide
― Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun: A Chapter Guide
“…this is the problem with photographs. After a while, you can’t remember if you’re recalling the actual memory or the memory of the photograph.
Or perhaps the photograph is the only reason you remember that moment. (p.85)”
― The Leisure Seeker
Or perhaps the photograph is the only reason you remember that moment. (p.85)”
― The Leisure Seeker
“The hypothesis of God, for instance, gives an incomparably absolute opportunity to understand everything and know absolutely nothing. Give man an extremely simplified system of the world and explain every phenomenon away on the basis of that system. An approach like that doesn't require any knowledge. Just a few memorized formulas plus so-called intuition and so-called common sense.”
― Roadside Picnic
― Roadside Picnic
Patrick’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Patrick’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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