All Jack Vance Quotes
- 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
- The inscrutability [of economics] is perhaps not unintentional. It gives endless employment to dialecticians who otherwise might become public charges or, at very worst, swindlers… Become Public
- 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… Alone
- Conversation! Supple sentences, with first and second meanings and overtones beyond, outrageous challenges with cleverly planned slip-points, rebuttals of elegant brevity; deceptions and guiles, patient… Allusion
- Of all questions, why? is the least pertinent. It begs the question; it assumes the larger part of its own response; to wit, that a… All
- This is no science, this is art, where equations fall away to elements like resolving chords, and where always prevails a symmetry either explicit or… Always Prevails
- But, for instance, when I was awfully young, I read all the Oz books. They were an enormous influence on me. All
- 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… Blind
- I was an omnivore at reading, so that everything I ever read contributed. Book
- 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… Ashton
- I haven't sold to the movies. In other words, I haven't gotten any enormous checks yet. Any
- I don't read other science fiction. I don't read any at all. All
- But Roy Rockwood, it was science fiction for the sake of science fiction. Fiction
- I haven't been to a movie since somebody gave me free tickets to Star Wars, which I went to. Been
- You used the word "civilization", which means a set of abstractions, symbols, conventions. Experience tends to be vicarious; emotions are predigested and electrical; ideas become… Abstractions
- As I mentioned, I was a carpenter for a time. Carpenter
- I suffer from a spiritual malaise which manifests itself in outbursts of vicious rage. From
- 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. Aware
- But I've sure worked at jobs where I have been under inspection. Been
- I got done writing Ports of Call and suddenly realized I have far too much material for the book. Book
- I just wrote what I felt like writing since they seemed to sell. Felt
- I never worked in an office in my life. Funny
- I thought that automobiles were going to have mufflers and go fast and airplanes were going to fly fast. Airplane
- I was a carpenter for a time and everybody watches what you do. Carpenter
- 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… Begin