Gene Wolfe

“All love that which they destroy.”

— Gene Wolfe

Online publication is fine with me, in part because I hope to collect those stories later.

— Gene Wolfe

Religion and science have always been matters of faith in something. It is the same something.

— Gene Wolfe

...in some situations winning consist[s] of disentangling oneself.

— Gene Wolfe

There is no magic. There is only knowledge, more or less hidden.

— Gene Wolfe

Before you ask more questions, think about whether you really want to know the answers.

— Gene Wolfe

Have a short story feature two situations, and then let them solve each other.

— Gene Wolfe

Men are said to desire women, Severian. Why do they despise the women they obtain?

— Gene Wolfe

“Honesty, integrity, and intelligence cannot be kept down.”

— Gene Wolfe

Weak people believe what is forced on them. Strong people, do what they wish to believe, forcing that to be real.

— Gene Wolfe

“My rule is never save bits. They get in the way, and you don't think of anything new. Put 'em in. Make…

— Gene Wolfe

“You believe me wise because I taught you once, but I have not been north, as you have. You have seen (what)…

— Gene Wolfe

All time exists. That is the truth… If the future did not exist now, how could we journey toward it? If the…

— Gene Wolfe

You do not characterize by telling the reader about the character. You do it by showing the character thinking, speaking and acting…

— Gene Wolfe

“all time exists.that is the truth beyond the legends the epopts tell. if the future did not exist now, how could we…

— Gene Wolfe

Science has so accustomed us to devising and accepting theories to account for the facts we observe, however fantastic, that our minds…

— Gene Wolfe

You seem to think that the only genuine existence evil can have is conscious existence - that no one is evil unless…

— Gene Wolfe

“If you have a machine with three or four parts, you can shake them up in a box and it's still pretty…

— Gene Wolfe

We think that we know a man or a woman, when so much of what we know is actually that man's or…

— Gene Wolfe

“Whatever we may say, all of us suffer from disturbed sleep at times. Some in truth hardly sleep, though some who sleep…

— Gene Wolfe

“I have sometimes thought that the reason the trees are so quiet in the summer is that they are in a sort…

— Gene Wolfe

We only have one dog now. Calamity Jane had to be put down. She was very old, and her medicine no longer…

— Gene Wolfe

“We say, “I will,” and “I will not,” and imagine ourselves (though we obey the orders of some prosaic person every day)…

— Gene Wolfe

“And it came to me that these trees had been hardly smaller when I was yet unborn, and had stood as they…

— Gene Wolfe

“Find girl?” He had lost his desire to talk, but the intensity of his emotions drove the words forth. “What did he…

— Gene Wolfe

“The ground recoiled, shocked. The worktable swooped beneath him as though it were a swing whose rope had broken. He turned over,…

— Gene Wolfe

“I would like [my readers] to better understand human beings and human life as a result of having read [my] stories. I'd…

— Gene Wolfe

“... I believe in some sense much akin to the belief of faith, that I noticed, felt, or underwent what I describe—but…

— Gene Wolfe

“[T]he very existence of such powers argues a counterforce. We call powers of the first kind dark, though they may use a…

— Gene Wolfe

“I turned my head to look at the Ascian. It was clear that he had been listening attentively, but I could not…

— Gene Wolfe

“I believe there is no other difference between those who are called courageous and those who are branded craven than that the…

— Gene Wolfe

“There are beings—and artifacts—against which we batter our intelligence raw, and in the end make peace with reality only by saying, “It…

— Gene Wolfe

“We talk of strong personalities, and they are strong, until the not-every-day when we see them as we might see one woman…

— Gene Wolfe

All novels are fantasies. Some are more honest about it.

— Gene Wolfe

“We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in…

— Gene Wolfe

That we are capable only of being what we are remains our unforgivable sin.

— Gene Wolfe

“The best offense is a good defense, but a bad defense is offensive.”

— Gene Wolfe

“There is no magic. There is only knowledge, more or less hidden.’ Hildegrin”

— Gene Wolfe

“I felt that pressure of time that is perhaps the surest indication we have left childhood behind.”

— Gene Wolfe

“It was in this instant of confusion that I realized for the first time that I am in some degree insane.”

— Gene Wolfe