“But the point is, when the writer turns to address the reader, he or she must not only speak to me—naively dazzled… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
Good writing is clear. Talented writing is energetic. Good writing avoids errors. Talented writing makes things happen in the reader's mind---vividly, forcefully... — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
“Right now I'm just a bright guy with a lot to say and nothing to say it about.” — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
I spend a lot of time thinking, if not daydreaming. People think of me as a genre writer, and a genre writer… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
It looks like the writer is telling you a story. What the writer is actually doing, however, is using words to evoke… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
Historically, I guess that's how science fiction works: you start by using aliens to think the unthinkable and then, eventually, another… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
“You begin to suspect, as you gaze through this you-shaped hole of insight and fire, that though it is the most important… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
“Sometimes I cannot tell who wrote what. That is upsetting. With some sections, I can remember the place and time I wrote… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
“The concept of a writer writing a vivid and accurate scene in a language transparent and devoid of decoration so that we… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
As a prose writer, I work with language; and those who work with language turn to poetry for renewal. — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
“Though they have things in common, good writing and talented writing are not the same. […] If you start with a confused,… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
“To the extent that the short story is an art, Sturgeon is the American short-story writer.” — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
In a very real way, one writes a story to find out what happens in it. Before it is written it sits… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
I think of myself as a very lazy writer, though other people see it differently. — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
“I was a young black man, light-skinned enough so that four out of five people who met me, of whatever race, assumed… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
I think of myself as someone who thinks largely through writing. Thus I write more than most people, and I write in… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
“Good writing is clear. Talented writing is energetic. Good writing avoids errors. Talented writing makes things happen in the reader’s mind —… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
A poet is wounded into speech, and he examines these wounds, meticulously, to discover how to heal them. The bad poet harangues at the… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
'You spin in the sky, the world spins under you, and you step from land to land, while we . . .' She turned… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
“People probably do hear watches go tic-tok. But I’m sure my childhood clock went tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic…Why” — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
“I wanted to get out, Vyme, to keep going and not be trapped, to be free.... only I was cruel. I had the chance… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
A number of things in 'Dhalgren' are just meant to function as mysteries. They're mysteries when the book begins, and they're mysteries when the… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
The pulp hero, though he may be a renegade, is a guy who doesn't feel. Anything. Ever. And for the adolescent male - pummeled… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
“they were nice in a useless sort of way, which is, after all, the only way to be truly nice.” — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
“Neurotics, proceed with delusions of grandeur. Napoleon Bonaparte, take the lead. Jesus Christ, bring up the rear. Simulate severe depression. Non-communicative with repressed hostility.” — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
“Do you follow the wrestling? Most people think it's illegal, but you can watch it there. Ruby and Python are on display this evening.” — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
Spending practically every minute of your day on pure survival is an absolutely boring life. — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
