Every moment of a science fiction story must represent the triumph of writing over world-building. — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
World-building numbs the reader's ability to fulfill their part of the bargain because it believes that it has to do everything around here if anything is going to get done. Above all, world-building is not technically necessary. It is the… — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
Identity is not negotiable. An identity you have achieved by agreement is always a prison. — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
I think it's undignified to read for the purposes of escape. After you grow up, you should start reading for other purposes — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
“As they moved from exhibit to exhibit like reluctant tourists in some artist's studio, Buffin sat on a stool with his limbs tense. He… — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
“He ran toward the light. When he passed the corpse of his dead friend, he began to weep again. He picked up his sword.… — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
“Some internal process held him rapt. He had begun, perhaps, to map the paths inside himself which led to the Past. This gave him… — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
Budapest is a prime site for dreams: the East’s exuberant vision of the West, the West’s uneasy hallucination of the East. It is a… — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
Writing's like gambling. Unpredictable and sporadic successes make you more addicted, not less. — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
“You can't cure people of their character,' she read. After this he had crossed something out then gone on, 'You can't even change yourself.… — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
“When the landed gentry cut up a seed cake for tea it makes no difference to the cake which of them holds the knife;… — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
Egnaro is a secret known to everyone but yourself. It is a country or a city to which you have never been; it is… — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
A good ground rule for writing in any genre is, start with a form, then undermine its confidence in itself. Ask what it's afraid… — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
“Write something about me then,' he said when I came back. He grinned. 'Go on! Now! I bet you can!' 'I don't do portraits,… — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
“I think it’s undignified to read for the purposes of escape…. If you read for escape you will never try to change your life,… — M. John Harrison Copy Share Image
