John M. Ford Quotes

17 quotes in 286 categories

• Well, it's an adventure story, and a Bildungsroman, of course, but there was also the intention to describe a culture that had been seen in…
• Observe, don't imitate.
• Sometimes the reader will decide something else than the author's intent; this is certainly true of attempts to empirically decipher reality.
• Every book is three books, after all; the one the writer intended, the one the reader expected, and the one that casts its shadow when…
• We're not lost. We're locationally challenged
• I long for the simplicity of theatre. I want lessons learned, comeuppances delivered, people sorted out, all before your bladder gets distractingly full. That's what…
• At one point I intended to write precursor and sequel novels, about the establishment of the Web and its next evolution, but I am very…
• I'm very happy that the New York Times has spoken well of my stuff; who wouldn't be? But it's not a choice I made.
• Creating the fictional background for a game world isn't significantly different from creating a background for fiction.
• I don't think anyone wants a reader to be completely lost - certainly not to the point of giving up - but there's something to…
• We're all living on borrowed time. The trick is to come up with works of sufficient interest to pay off the debt.
• The language fictional characters use is chosen for effect, at least if the author is concentrating.
• If I were to write Web now, it would be a much, much darker book.
• There are readers who want every point to be clearly and unambiguously set forth, and there are those who want to pry ideas and meanings…
• There are people who believe in an absolutely transparent prose; with every respect for clarity of expression, I don't.
• The cynical part of the answer is that I expect to see a good deal more space opera, set far enough in the future as…
• The ideal, it seems to me, is to show things happening and allow the reader to decide what they mean.

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