Gene Wolfe Quotes

48 quotes in 840 categories

• Knowledge is soon changed, then lost in the mist, an echo half-heard.
• Science has so accustomed us to devising and accepting theories to account for the facts we observe, however fantastic, that our minds must begin their…
• There is no limit to stupidity. - Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity.
• You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing.
• I could speculate, but it would be just speculation and the kind of thing that you would get in with a science fiction story. And…
• I get a lot of people complaining about my ambiguity, often in cases which there is nothing ambigous at all. As far as I can…
• The same authorities who insist upon beginnings, middles, and ends, declare that Great Literature (by which they mean the stories they have been taught to…
• You do not characterize by telling the reader about the character. You do it by showing the character thinking, speaking and acting in a characteristic…
• Do not start a story unless you have an ending in mind. You can change the story's ending if you wish, but you should always…
• God is the nest we build together.
• Some writers say they cannot write in front of a window; many say they cannot function without almost perfect quiet. A writer with only two…
• My whole life experience feeds into my writing. I think that must be true for every writer. Clearly the Army and combat were major influences;…
• I don't think anyone is more intrinsically holy. People experience God in many ways; and it seems to me that God does what the rest…
• He's not rewarding us by talking to us. He's talking to us because He has something to say to us directly, as opposed to the…
• We only have one dog now. Calamity Jane had to be put down. She was very old, and her medicine no longer controlled her seizures.…
• Have a short story feature two situations, and then let them solve each other.
• Ambiguity is necessary in some of my stories, not in all. In those, it certainly contributes to the richness of the story. I doubt that…
• You seem to think that the only genuine existence evil can have is conscious existence - that no one is evil unless he admits it…
• Year followed struggling year for me, and all that time I read--I suppose few have ever read so. I began, as most young people do,…
• My definition of good literature is that which can be read by an educated reader, and reread with increased pleasure.

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