Jack Vance

“My talismans are not obviously useless.”

— Jack Vance

Count me not your friend but the enemy of your enemies.

— Jack Vance

An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought.

— Jack Vance

“Twango's hospitality, though largely symbolic, does him credit.”

— Jack Vance

Somebody else's ignorance is bliss.

— Jack Vance

“Am I known as Cugel the Clever for nothing?”

— Jack Vance

A barbarian is not aware that he is a barbarian.

— Jack Vance

It is useless, after all, to complain against inexorable reality.

— Jack Vance

“The symbologist made a cryptic sign. "That remains to be seen, as the cat said who voided into the sugar bowl.”

— Jack Vance

“Two hours of loose philosophizing will never tilt the scale against the worth of one sound belch.”

— Jack Vance

I suffer from a spiritual malaise which manifests itself in outbursts of vicious rage.

— Jack Vance

“I hate you with the hate that I give to all the world; I love you with a feeling nothing else arouses.”

— Jack Vance

“Candor is never indiscreet. Truth, which is to say, the reflection of life, is beautiful.”

— Jack Vance

I understand the gist of your speculation,' said Rhialto. 'It is most likely nuncupatory.

— Jack Vance

What is an evil man? The man is evil who coerces obedience to his private ends, destroys beauty, produces pain, extinguishes life.

— Jack Vance

Vance has a genius in evoking the beauty of strangeness, the strangeness of beauty.

— Jack Vance

Human interactions, stimulated as they are by disequilibrium, never achieve balance. In even the most favorable transaction, one party whether he realizes…

— Jack Vance

The less a writer discusses his work and himself the better. The master chef slaughters no chickens in the dining room; the…

— Jack Vance

“I will be glad to go. There is no poetry here. It is as I have always set forth: joy comes of…

— Jack Vance

But I'm so slow on it because I find it terribly hard writing blind on computers. The computer speaks to me, but…

— Jack Vance

I know that the history of man is not his technical triumphs, his kills, his victories. It is a composite, a mosaic…

— Jack Vance

This flattery has been rather slow in coming. I think all of sudden late in life now I'm getting some credit for…

— Jack Vance

It seems to limit you; when you're working in an office, you're a creature in a small cell under somebody's supervision and…

— Jack Vance

The universe is eight billion years old, the last two billion of which have produced intelligent life. During this time not one…

— Jack Vance

I give dignity second place to expedience.

— Jack Vance

Mischief moves somewhere near and I must blast it with my magic.

— Jack Vance

I was a carpenter for a time and everybody watches what you do.

— Jack Vance

As I mentioned, I was a carpenter for a time.

— Jack Vance

I'd never been published when I was young.

— Jack Vance

I never made lots of money at it, but I sold enough.

— Jack Vance

Why make plans? The sun might well go out tomorrow.

— Jack Vance

Good music always defeats bad luck

— Jack Vance

Since we are not permitted to act, we are obliged to know.

— Jack Vance

“Only the fact of my broken limbs prevents me from leaping at your throat.”

— Jack Vance

“T'sais mounted her horse and set out for Earth, seeking love and beauty.”

— Jack Vance

“I am a dull fellow...my person reeks, my conversation consists of insipid platitudes.”

— Jack Vance

“You are young; you have hopes. One by one they will go, and nothing will be left but the bare fact of…

— Jack Vance

“The Vine of Life grows a single melon. The color of the heart is unknown until the rind is split.”

— Jack Vance

I haven't been to a movie since somebody gave me free tickets to Star Wars, which I went to.

— Jack Vance

I suspect that the word (art) was invented by second-rate intelligences to describe the incomprehensible activities of their betters.

— Jack Vance