Jack Vance
But I'm so slow on it because I find it terribly hard writing blind on computers. The computer speaks to me, but it's just so slow, I'm so terribly slow using it.Collection: Computers
Then there was Clark Ashton Smith, who wrote for Weird Tales and who had a wild imagination. He wasn't a very talented writer, but his imagination was wonderful.Collection: Imagination
Right now I'm so old that if I had a big gush of money, I don't know what I'd do with it. I don't travel anymore. I don't need anything, don't want anything. I'd give it to my son, I guess, and let him enjoy it.Collection: Travel
A reader is not supposed to be aware that someone's written the story. He's supposed to be completely immersed, submerged in the environment.
It seems to limit you; when you're working in an office, you're a creature in a small cell under somebody's supervision and surveillance.
I was a carpenter for a time and everybody watches what you do.
But I've sure worked at jobs where I have been under inspection.
The story was such that I couldn't make a graceful ending and then make a graceful new beginning. I could have, but I didn't want to. So, it isn't the most graceful way of writing a story. This new story is, I think, is pretty good stuff. I'm pleased with it anyway.
Well, I think everything I've ever read contributes to the background from which I write.
This flattery has been rather slow in coming. I think all of sudden late in life now I'm getting some credit for what I've done. Which is gratifying, but it's kind of a little late.
These are just the tip of the iceberg, because I read and read and read. I read everything.
There was a writer in the '20s called Christopher Morley, who I remember a little bit of, who had some influence on me, but I couldn't tell you what it was.
Sometimes some of these little side excursions are useful and I manage to fit them in the book somewhere.
So I'll write it, and then I'll find out that I actually wrote something that is utterly useless. You can't use it in the story and it doesn't fit. So I just throw it away. I've done that countless times.
In fact, almost every job you get somebody watching you.
I'd never been published when I was young.
I worked for half a cent a word. I'm not a fast writer to begin with, so for the first few years I had do other things.
I was an omnivore at reading, so that everything I ever read contributed.
I thought that automobiles were going to have mufflers and go fast and airplanes were going to fly fast.
I never worked in an office in my life.
I never made lots of money at it, but I sold enough.
I just wrote what I felt like writing since they seemed to sell.
I haven't sold to the movies. In other words, I haven't gotten any enormous checks yet.
I haven't been to a movie since somebody gave me free tickets to Star Wars, which I went to.
I got done writing Ports of Call and suddenly realized I have far too much material for the book.
I don't read other science fiction. I don't read any at all.
I do read books. I suppose it's more or less the same thing, but at least I'm alone and I'm an individual. I can stop anytime I want, which I frequently do.
But, for instance, when I was awfully young, I read all the Oz books. They were an enormous influence on me.
But Roy Rockwood, it was science fiction for the sake of science fiction.
As I mentioned, I was a carpenter for a time.
Freedom, privileges, options, must constantly be exercised, even at the risk of inconvenience.Collection: Inspirational
If religions are diseases of the human psyche, as the philosopher Grintholde asserts, then religious wars must be reckoned the resultant sores and cankers infecting the aggregate corpus of the human race. Of all wars, these are the most detestable, since they are waged for no tangible gain, but only to impose a set of arbitrary credos upon another's mind.Collection: Religious
Good music always defeats bad luckCollection: Music
While we are alive we should sit among colored lights and taste good wines, and discuss our adventures in far places; when we are dead, the opportunity is past.Collection: Wine
What is an evil man? The man is evil who coerces obedience to his private ends, destroys beauty, produces pain, extinguishes life.Collection: Pain
A barbarian is not aware that he is a barbarian.Collection: Barbarians
Nothing is more conspicuous than a farting princess.Collection: Princess
I categorically declare first my absolute innocence, second my lack of criminal intent, and third my effusive apologies.Collection: Apology
Count me not your friend but the enemy of your enemies.Collection: Enemy
The less a writer discusses his work and himself the better. The master chef slaughters no chickens in the dining room; the doctor writes prescriptions in Latin; the magician hides his hinges, mirrors, and trapdoors with the utmost care.Collection: Latin
A man is like a rope: both break at a definite strain....The solution is not splicing the rope; it's lessening the tension.Collection: Men
Beauty compelled admiration and erotic yearning; such was its organic function. But never by itself could it command love.Collection: Erotic
I understand the gist of your speculation,' said Rhialto. 'It is most likely nuncupatory.Collection: Gist
Happiness is fugitive; dissatisfaction and boredom are real.Collection: Real
An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought.Collection: Inches
Somebody else's ignorance is bliss.Collection: Ignorance
Since we are not permitted to act, we are obliged to know.Collection: Knows
I become drunk as circumstances dictate.Collection: Drunk
I suspect that the word (art) was invented by second-rate intelligences to describe the incomprehensible activities of their betters.Collection: Art
Law cannot reach where enforcement will not follow. —Popular aphorism.Collection: Law